A thousand graves
by Stormfoedt
Summary: I was on a train,headed for the one place I had ever heard of apart from the village.This is the country Fiore,a country famous for its many mages, and the guilds where said mages usually are employed.Right now this train was headed for Magnolia,a town with one single guild.Fairy Tail it was called. Alternate story with Lucy as a Northern girl. A bit dark, a bit angsty. Rated T.
1. Chapter 1

***As the title suggests, this is going to be a lot of angst. I am not certain where this is going yet, but it is Fairy Tail. Next chapter might reveal a bit more, if such a chapter ever comes into existence, that is. Just an idea.. for now.***

If you ever had a cat, you might've experienced it bringing home dead animals. You know, dead mice, birds, sometimes fish. I had a cat named Odin. Don't ask me why, it only fitted him, somehow. He was very proud, only got one eye, and frequently brought home dead animals. Fish was alright, he ate those, but the birds and mice he always left for me. I always made little graves for them, with headstones and everything made from pebbles. Mama always found this a rather odd habit, but let me do my thing, since it simply was my way of handling death. You know, get them into the ground, stand in front of the final resting place in silence for a moment, and you're done. I never blamed Odin for hunting or anything. It was his nature, a natural trait from being a carnivore. Heck, I ate meat myself every day. Still, the dead should be honored, awarded with slight recognition for their existence. Over the years I got a miniature graveyard on my hands, sorted neatly within a compound complete with a small fence around it. Every now and then I would light a candle for them.

Then the day came when Odin died, thus joining his prey in my little sacred place. I cried, which was understandable since I actually knew him when he was alive. It was alright though, since I already had come to terms with the fact that everything dies eventually. That was what I believed in any case. That was before my world was shattered into tiny, unrecognizable bits.

My village died. It was a small village, but filled with old people, children, adults, animals. You know, things villages usually have. I buried all of them, a thousand graves or more, each with their own little candle showing them the way to the afterlife. I didn't cry though. How can you cry when there no longer are anyone to comfort you? I also buried the monster that did it. No discrimination. His light was the biggest of all, since he would need the extra light to get to wherever he was headed. After all, when killing so many human beings while laughing, you have to be shrouded in darkness.

That was my world. Waiting for things to die, so I could show it respect. I stopped respecting life itself after that incident. How can something that hurts you so much deserve respect? Why didn't I die, when everyone else did? I had nowhere to go, unless...

The thought struck me as I sat on a large rock staring at my small graveyard, the one where Odin lay resting, and I saw the headstone next to his with a name of a person I never met. There was that crazy lady. A crazy lady with short, black hair as dark as her eyes, though she harbored warmth in their depths. She should be alive still. She was STRONG. I got up, sent one last look at my wrecked life, the village that no longer held anything. Yes. Ur would be alive still. Or so I thought...


	2. Chapter 2

***Guess what, here's the second chapter. I have a bad feeling about this story, but I chose to give my readers the continuation anyways. Don't be too mad if this all ends up in a curb somewhere... I just needed to get this out of my head so I can continue with other stuff

Want to know something else? I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. Nope, not a bad thing, for the best! :)***

I watched the moving landscape outside the window of the carriage I was sitting in. I were on a train, headed for the one place I had ever heard of apart from the village. Me and Mama had lived alone in the forest. We only had each other, and the nearby village that we went to every now and then to buy supplies. I knew little of the people there, could recite a few names at best. Really, I am bad at names.

This is the country Fiore, a country famous for its many mages, and the guilds where said mages usually are employed. Right now this train was headed for Magnolia, a town with one single guild. Fairy Tail it was called. What I would do when I got there I didn't know, but... it was the only thing I had been able to think of when I heard Ur was no more, leaving behind a legacy.

I smiled, and focused my gaze on my reflection in the window. I had long, blond hair fixed in a loose side ponytail to be out of the way. My eyes were brown, rather big, and I were pale. I blamed the scarce sun up north for that. Currently I wore apair of denim shorts, a bit ripped at the edges since they originally were pants. My torso was adorned with a loose, black t-shirt. I would like to call me busty, Mama always said that I would topple over if they grew any bigger unless my ass grew accordingly to regain some kind of balance. I would pout at that, and then she would laugh. Mama always found my pouting face amusing.

"We will be arriving at Magnolia Station shortly. All passengers getting off are asked to gather their belongings and head for the nearest exit. I frowned a bit, and then got up, my bag in my hand as I slowly moved through the wagon towards the back entrance.

"Natsu... we're here, Natsu. We have to get off, or we're gonna take the train AGAIN," I gazed sideways, and saw a blue cat nudging something that resembled a human being somewhat. I chuckled at the pathetic look the boy had plastered on his badly bloated face as he tried not puking his guts out.

"Poor thing..." I mumbled to myself before smiling broadly.

"Yo. Cat, need any help with that?" I pointed at the boy. The cat turned around slowly, giving me a long stare.

"Excuse me Miss, but you have to get off. The train is about to depart," the conductor looked at me, completely avoiding the THING laying on the seat.

"Sorry, Sir. I'll just gather this.." I lifted the boy by the collar and tossed him with backpack and everything over my shoulder.

"That should be all. I'm off," I smiled at the partly shocked, partly relieved man, and then stepped onto the platform moments before the train departed.

"Now, boy. A little motionsick, are we?" I put the boy down and he fell to the ground, clearly not recovered yet. The cat came flying soon after, started to poke the poor guy to check if he was still alive.

"Thank you, lady, we have been riding that train for a long time now," the cat said, and I simply nodded, stared at the poor thing. My smile was momentarily gone. It hurts to smile, you know, remembering their faces. The one that had faces, that is.

"By the look of the conductor, I figured as much. I do hope this was the place you were supposed to get off at though. Yo, you alive or what," I squatted down, poked the guy lightly. As if electrocuted, he suddenly stood up, pumping his fist in the air. He was rather strange looking, with pink hair, an open vest without anything under it, wearing some loosely fitted white pants and with a scaled scarf around his neck. His backpack held a sleeping bag, probably a change of clothes, not much more could fit in it. Some food, perhaps.

"Hah! I'm alive and kickin'!" he said proudly, and I got up. Wow, quick recovery, huh...

"Glad to hear. Now, as thanks for saving your pitiful self from good ol' locomotive over there, do you have any idea as to where Fairy Tail is?" he made a barfing sound at the mention of locomotive, but lit up as I said the name of the guild.

"'course! It's right up ahead!" he said, and pointed, then started walking in the same direction.

"Aye sir!" the cat exclaimed and flew after him. I sighed, but went after him.

The guild was right ahead, indeed. Literally in fact. It made it fairly easy to find it. The boy - hadn't the cat called him Natsu? - went ahead with large strides, and I had difficulties following the guy. As we neared the guild, I felt a certain dread growing in the pit of my stomach. What had I messed myself into by coming here?

"I'm home!" the boy exclaimed as he kicked the door to a large building open. Above the door FAIRY TAIL was spelled out with large and colourful letters. It looked like a bar inside. People sat drinking and chatting everywhere while being served food and beverage by a woman with long, white wavy hair. She had big, blue eyes, fair skin and a motherly smile. The kind I often saw older women have when staring at the little ones playing. Mama would have that sometimes too, though the wolfy grin was her usual attire. A feral grimace full with humour and mischief while her eyes sparkled. Might as well make use of this beerhall and get myself something refreshing. I walked over at the bar, ignoring a starting brawl behind me and waited for the barmaid to return.

"Ah, you came with Natsu! Such a beauty too! Do you wish to join the guild, perhaps?" the barmaid was there unexpectedly, and had noticed that we had joined at the same time.

"Nah, just picked up some dead meat as I got off the train. Joining the guild, however... is it any fun?" I stared questionably at her, tilting my head. She had chuckled knowingly at my first remark, and now nodded.

"Always," she said.

"What kind of requirements are there, though? I come from up north, and they don't really have any guilds up there..."

"You're from the North? Thats unusual. Gray! Come'ere!" she shouted, and stared at me apologetically before leaving me in order to serve some costumers. I sat there slightly confused until a slightly battered up boy with black hair and only wearing his underwear came up and sat next to me, staring after the beautiful barmaid. I looked at him for a moment, and then proceeded to laugh loudly.

"Oh my gosh! You must be Gray, am I correct? You have to be HERS!" I laughed loudly and he looked at me, slightly flabbergasted before looking down, swearing and going off to find his clothes. I felt tears prickling from my eyes as I started coughing a bit.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Natsu asked, and I pointed at the stripper as he was putting on his newly reacquired pants.

"Ow. damn. hehe... it hurts but damnit.. can't.. hehehe, stop laughing *cough*" I started coughing and fell to the ground gasping for air.

"What, Gray?" he asked as I lay on my back, smiling.

"YO! Gray, you are hers, aren't you? That crazy lady from the North.. Ur, right?" I saw him stiffen and turn to glare at me. It was not a nice glare. I sat up, wiping blood off my mouth while smiling. All of a sudden he was over me, punched in the face so hard that I flew backwards and crashed into a table.

"That was uncalled for, but I guess it's true then.." I said, suddenly not smiling anymore as I got up.

"She is no more..." I sighed after uttering those words. She was very nice, merely going through town, starch naked, really down for some odd reason.

***flashback***

"Lady, Mama always says walking around naked is bad ,y'know," I said as I came running towards her. I was gathering things for my little graveyard, some things extra to decorate the whole thing. Odin had reasently passed, and I needed to put him in the ground or he would, regardless of the cold start to smell. I were 4 years old. She looked at me with dull, black eyes, and then stared at her own body.

"Crap! Not again!" she exclaimed, started looking around for her clothes. The townspeople did their best to ignore her. I sighed, and took out a piece of white cloth from my bag, and wrapped them around her, fastened it with some clips. The woman did nothing to stop me, merely stared. She had really short, black hair, almost like a man, though she was a woman.

"There you go. You should find something else to wear though, or you'll get a fever y'know!" I continued, and took her hand, dragged her along me into a tailor in town.

"Ah, little one, did you forget someth.. ah, what have we here," the old lady that owned the shop looked at the nearly naked woman who barely covered herself. The old lady was like a lot of other old ladies, and I forgot her name. she was short, a bit fat, wearing some baggy dress with long stockings barely revealing any skin.

"She unfort'nat'ly lost her clothes. I have more money here, so can you find som'thin' pretty?" I asked, and the old lady smiled and went to the back."

"Yo, kiddo. You don't really need to do this.." the woman spoke softly, and I stared back at her.

"If I only did what I had to I'd feel bad. I need that quilt you're wearing for the grave as well, so you need to wear som'thin' pretty. Pretty ladies should wear pretty things after all," I said seriously, and she looked at me with wonder.

"Ah, here we are, little one. Pretty enough?" she brought with her a white dress, simply but elegant, made to reach down to the knees. That, and a pair of white boots lined with fur.

"Yep, it's REALLY pretty. How much does it cost?" I smiled brightly, and the old woman smiled.

"You're such a regular by now. No pay this time, it's on me," she said, and I ran to hug her.

"Now, lady you can change in the ba.. or right there. Whatever suits you," the old woman shook her head while smiling, and then disappeared into the back herself as I picked up the quilt and put it back in my bag.

"Now I need to go back to my business, lady, but if you want, you can come too, y'know," I looked up at her, and she looked lost in thought. I couldn't leave her like that, so I took her hand, and headed for my sacred ground.

I placed her on a rock nearby that wasn't covered in snow, and carefully took out the rock I had chosen to become the gravestone of Odin, the deceased cat.

"Where's your Mama, girl?" she asked mildly as I took out a chisel and started engraving the name in the runes Mama taught me. They were old letters that fitted nicely on a grave.

"Mama's out huntin' again. She does that som'times. And she's sad that Odin died, though she says she isn't," I said it matter of factly. Mama was sad. I saw it in her eyes. Sad and guilty, though all things die.

"Odin?" she said, not knowing who this was, since I forgot to tell her.

"Yep, Odin. Odin the cat," I declared, and put the rock down, freshly carved. Then I lifted the remnants of a badly molested animal from the grave I had already digged, and showed it to her before wrapping it into the cloth the woman wore earlier.

"Ah... How did he.. become like that?" the woman asked, barely looking at Odin before looking away.

"You mean how he died? Mama went to fight this monster called Deliora, y'know, 'cause it kills things. It hit Odin, and he was in lots of pain. Then he stopped breathin'. Mama brought 'im back, 'cause she knew I'd make 'im a grave. Then he can rest without pain anymore," I felt my eyes getting a bit watery, but turned away as I carefully put him down in the dark hole in the earth, and slowly covered it with dirt.

"Y'know, lady? You have the same face like Mama when she came home. Did your cat die too?" I asked, and turned to her. She looked at me with those sad eyes. Guilty and sad.

"You're a smart girl, you know that? I did lose my cat, actually," she said while smiling.

"Liar. But I can make a grave, y'know..." I went over to her as I cried, and she cried as well.

"I'd like that," she finally said. We went looking for a big rock, and then I inscripted the name she told me in runes. Ultear. I then put a light next to it, and we stood there in silence for a while.

"What's your name, lady?" I asked after a while, and she ruffled my hair when I looked up at her.

"Ur, little girl. What's yours?" she was kind, but sad, the lady.

"I don't have one. I said I should have one in case I die, see.. or else she can't make a grave, since I got no name," I said.

"Ur is a pretty name though, it fits you. Pretty like the pretty lady," I smiled, and then hugged her once more.

"You'll find a precious one again, y'know. Mama says the end never is the end,"

***flashback end***

He was a bit taken aback by my sudden change, but not as much as when I suddenly hugged him tightly.

"I'm glad you're still alive, Gray Fullbuster," I whispered, and then took a few steps back.

"I'm sorry... but who are you?" he said, eventually.

"Yeah.. well. You wouldn't know me, only she did. I came here to check that her legacy was alright, and to... look for a new home," I laughed awkwardly. If I didn't laugh, I might cry, after all.

"She kinda named me, that lady. And she tried showing me some magic, but it kinda goes against my err.. other magic, so," I put my fist in my hand, and he looked baffled, before I closed my eyes.

"Ice Make, rose," I said, and a small, purplish rose appeared in my hand, tangling its stem around my wrist before shattering. I blushed slightly. Such weak magic that was. Not initially, of course, but with me as its contractor.

"So you want to join the guild, do you?" the barmaid asked, and I turned to her, smiled.

"I might try it out. How do I get in?" I replied, and she giggled.

"Just tell me where to place the stamp, dear," and I forwarded my hand, wanted it to be pink.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail," she said.

"HAH! WEAK! What kinda magic was that!?" I heard a yelling voice, and saw Natsu looking at me.

"Of course," I chuckled, and went back to the barstool, ordered some chili and a milkshake, chocolate flavoured.

"That was uncalled for, squinty eyes!" Gray yelled, and got a remark on his droopy eyes in return. A brawl started yet again. I got my bowl of chilis that I started nibbling off while mindlessly stirring my milkshake with a straw.

"Ah, I almost forgot. What's your name? Mine is Mirajane, but everyone calls me Mira," the barmaid stod there cleaning a class, and I took a whole chili in my mouth, chewed it slowly. Swallowed.

"Nice to meet you, Mira," I said. She stood there, awaiting my answer. I sighed.

"I do not look like a damn Salamander!" I exclaimed, remembering the discussion I had had with a man I met.

"I mean, seriously, do I look like a freaking lizard to you? Is this some kind of southern custom? To yell at me and call me a lizard?" I hit my head against the counter, groaned at the annoyance.

"Sorry. The man just really annoyed me. I'm Lucy, by the way. Not telling my last name though. Mama always told me I should avoid using it, at least wait until she..." I trailed off, then raised my head to pick another chili, nibbling at it.

"That's alright. Everyone got a rough past at this guild. That's why we become each others family," she said. Customers waited, so she winked and headed off. Family.


	3. Chapter 3

***I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. Third chapter, here we come***

I opened my eyes, and found myself in a hospital bed. The roof was white, and when I sat up I saw white curtains surrounding me.

"I see you're up," a bored voice muttered, and I saw Gray sitting on the floor next to the bed.

"Jeez, you should've just said you were that injured. Someone or something really hit your innards hard. You have several fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, and you're bruised as hell on the inside. What the hell hit you?" he said it with the same bored tone, and I lightly touched my bruised stomach.

"Mama hit me. She was real mad, and when she is like that she's crazy strong. Guess I forgot to tell you." I looked down at him, before I jumped out of my bed, swayed a bit as I landed on the floor.

"Oi, don't get up yet. You should rest for at least a few days!" he protested, and I laughed. It sounded a bit bitter, but couldn't be helped.

"Weirdo. I'm good. A bit sore perhaps, but I do heal a lot faster than normal people. Sorry for laughin', by the way. I only met her once, you know. That crazy woman," he stiffened by that, but clenched his fists rather than attacking.

"Why do you call her crazy?" he asked.

"She walked around town starch naked. Not many people do that, you know. And she opposed Mama by giving me a name. No one opposes Mama," I smiled at the memory.

"How did I end up here, anyways?" I asked further on. The last thing I remembered was nibbling my chili.

"Erza happened... she slammed Natsu into you, and both got knocked out cold," he said with a taint of fear in his voice.

"Who is Erza?"

"That would be me." a female voice called, and a woman with scarlet hair approached, clad in a customiced platebody and a blue skirt. Of all things...

"I apologize for the trouble I have caused you. I heard you were from the north. Mind telling me which town, I might've been there," she said. A very polite woman. I smiled a small smile, but refused to cry.

"You might. It doesn't got a name anymore, though. The custom is that a town is stripped of its name when it ceases to exist. Mama went to the mountains to slay this demon, 'cause he insulted her Papa, see. Thing is, there was more than one, and others came to the nearby village," I sighed, and stretched my arms while yawning.

"I'm starving. Might as well go down and get me some food," suddenly a pair of strong arms were around me crushing me in a tight hug. I stared at this woman that had.. one teary eye.

"It's weird, really. I used to cry a lot when I were younger, but then... There is not much reason for crying, is there. Everything extinguishes..." I calmly released myself, and I knew it came upon me, the completely calm, indifferent smile, as I stared at the two standing there.

"Even the flames surrounding the demon as it was burned alive," I continued.

"..Burned..?" Gray muttered, and I smiled i a less scary manner before heading for the door.

"Guess I forgot to tell you, Gray. I'm a fire mage, which is why my ice magic is so bad, by the way," then I headed downstairs.

"I ordered another bowl of chili, and started nibbling one again. I don't really eat much. What's the point?

"Mira! I want a fire chicken!" I heard a voice call, and saw Natsu the motionsick kid sit a few seats away. Mira, the barmaid, gave confirmation and disappeared out back to prepare the meal.

"Yo. Heard you knocked me out cold yesterday," I said, and he turned around, stared at me.

"Ah, you're the weak Ice mage. Luigi, right?" he countered, and I felt... annoyance.

"That would be me." I said stiffly. Fine, be that way. I am surprised such feelings still lingers. True enough, the yelling stranger had irked me, but that incident had some time building up. And calling me Luigi? I sighed, and grabbed for another chili. Damn, they were all gone. Mira came out that very moment as I took out two rocks from my pocket. She had with her a large... ablaze..? chicken. They could do that? Not that I would be able to devour a chicken of that size, but the fire... I sighed again. Southerners sure were odd people. I held the two rocks up, tried finding my magic. It had been a while since I actually enjoyed a decent meal, so it might take some time. Since people seemed okay with Natsu eating in here, I might as well enjoy some too.

"What is that?" he asked, breaking my consentration.

"Food," I answered, then turned my consentration back to the rocks.

"You eat rocks?" Gray asked, he had arrived at the hall himself now. I felt annoyance yet again. It felt weird.

"Shut it and I'll show you. It took forever finding.. getting here, so it has been a while, but..." suddenly a hand snatched my rocks, and I stared as the pinkhaired mage smelled them.

"They smell like fire," he stated. I blinked. Calm down.

"That would be why they are called fire stones then. Now, give 'em back," I said, my voice cold with suppressed rage.

"Why. You're an Ice mage, Luigi. What do you need fire for?" he said, and I snapped, snatched the rocks from him.

"They were a gift from Mama. Get it? You, of all, will not bee able to understand," I stalked off, into the woods.

:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

I were breathing hard, trying to calm my senses. One of the side effects of fire magic, emotions had the tendency of getting the better of me. Really, Mama always said that I shouldn't have been able to master it the way I did since I always remained so calm.

*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

"Oi, Luigi!" I heard a voice call. It had been hearing it in my dream for some time, so I guessed the boy had been looking for me for a while now.

"Natsu, I found her!" another said, and I cracked an eye open. There, in front of me, stood the blue cat, and the pinkhaired mage came running soon after.

"Finally, found you," he said, leaning on his knees while catching his breath.

"Really. Why look in the first place? I am perfectly able to take care of myself," I stated calmly.

"Aww... come on, I'm sorry about those rocks, Luigi. I didn't know your mum gave 'em to you," he said, and sat down next to me.

"My name is Lucy... and of course you didn't know. I didn't tell you," I countered, looking straight ahead. I sighed.

"I know, that's what I said. And I'm sorry, so look at me, please?" his voice pleading.

"You are as hotheaded as your magic, aren't you?" I said, facing him like he wanted me to.

"Hey! I'm not hotheaded!" he exclaimed, and pouted. I could see my mothers amusement when it came to pouting faces. Such a weird face...

"I envy you," I said, and got up, stretced my stiff body. I had been sleeping for a while, it would seem, and sitting and sleeping with my back against a tree in this pissing rain wasn't too pleasant.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the fire mage exclaimed, without sounding too angry.

"I bet that your flames are bright and ever changing like your mood. Mine, however..." I took the rocks out, ground them together, creating a single spark. That was all I needed, as my hand suddenly were engulfed in a round, purple flame, the same that usually could be seen in a flame before it was extinguished. Natsu stared at it. I lifted my hand a bit, closed my eyes. Then, with a sudden movement I trusted it into the ground. The effect was immediate, and terrifying. The whole area around me exploded in flames, hot and almost lazily devouring everything living in the circle in the matter of seconds, leaving me in a black little crater, as Natsu blinked. Once. Twice.

"Fight me!" he yelled. I smiled calmly, shook my head.

"My flames are dying, and they make everything around me die. I do not wish to end you," I said. He didn't listen. His fist merely lit up with the bright flame that showed me what kind of person he was, and he yelled a battle cry as he came towards me. His fist collided with my palm, and his fire died, before I thrust him into the nearest tree using the grip I had on his fist.

"As I said. My flames make everything around me die. That includes your flames," I sighed, and returned to the guild. Might as well order some of that burning chicken to fill my reserves with energy.

***I really can't see this going anywhere, but I might as well post it anyways. Enjoy ;)***


	4. Chapter 4

***Chapter 4, hey! Sorry to say, I think my Muse is still resting. Without breathing. This is the result of procrastination, since I absolutely do NOT want to start doing that damn assignment, though I know I have to. I have started, mind you, but it's boring, so... breaktime resulted in this. Quite amusing, this one.

I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline***

I sat by the bar, staring into space when the barmaid approached.

"I heard you lost your village to a demon," Mira said, and I blinked. My village? Mine?

"Ah.. May I try a fire chicken, please? Perhaps a smaller one than the one Natsu would have, but..." she stared at me oddly, but nodded and soon returned with my order, then leaned over the counter clearly awaiting an answer.

"It was a nearby village. I didn't live in it. It was small, but burying them all was... time consuming," I said, and then started nibbling off the chicken, unaffected by the heat.

"You buried them all?"

"It is one of the few human traits I find appealing. Showing respect for that which was. That which is is a whole different matter. All things end eventually," my voice was calm. What else could it be? Calm was good. Calm was like dying. Not being dead, but merely losing what was life. Passion.

"So.. was this a long time ago?" quite prying, this one.

"Depends on your perception of time. Would you call a year short, or a day long?" I answered, and then the doors busted open.

"Fight me!" yelled Natsu and flung himself at me. I turned, and once again stopped his flaming fist with my palm.

"No," I replied, and then sent him flying across the hall before turning back to a baffled Mira.

"It took a week to retrieve all the bodies and bury them. The cold kept them from rotting, but it also froze the ground and made it hard to dig in it. Since a lot of people were mauled badly by the demons claws, I had difficulty placing all families together. I gave them names when I didn't remember the ones they used when alive, and then wrote the names on their graves. It was silent. Another week passed when I searched for Ur, and then found out she ended. I guess it is closing in on three weeks, now. Would you refer to it as long, or short?" I answered her question, and she got paler as I continued on.

"Short, I think. But three weeks, wouldn't we have heard news of such destruction by now?" she sent a glance to Master Makarov, whom sat eyeing me with... curiosity? I couldn't quite place the expression he wore.

"It is the North, and it is winter. The town is isolated during winter. Wait for the Spring, when what ended last year lives anew. They will find the graves, they will offer the final greeting, and the town will be erased from the maps. Such is the tradition where I lived, since hesitation will kill others that still are."

"Who taught you your magic, girl?" Master asked, changed the subject. It might be fore the best, most people had problems with death.

"Mama did,"

"Yet she tried to kill you?" he pointed on my stomach. So he had heard of that.

"She tried saving me. Mama is very strong, and hit me too hard when she pushed me aside. She was mad too, and hurt." I explained.

"Does she have a name?"

"Maya, though she told me her last name was a secret, and that I shouldn't tell people,"

"And where did she learn her magic?"

"Papa,"

"And where did he learn his magic?" I laughed when he asked, such a weird question.

"I don't know where, but I don't think he learnt it anywhere. He's even stronger than Mama, and Mama is a lot stronger than me," I grinned, and then continued eating.

"Do you happen to know his name?" the man asked. I noted that Natsu had recovered and slowly walked towards us.

"Papas? 'course I know his name. But what does it matter?" I said, and then stopped eating for a second.

"Your father is strong?" Natsu asked, sat down and started taking chunks of my chicken and ate it. I ignored it, were full anyways.

"Just tell me his name," Master said with urgency.

"I.. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you. I think he's pretty well known in the south," I said hesitantly

"Was he.. erm.. by any means a Dragon Slayer?" Mirajane asked.

"What kind of question is that? Of course he isn't..." I shrugged, and yawned. Someone laughed nervously. They seemed relieved, somehow.

"Why the hell would anyone wish to slay a dragon?" I asked sharply.

"A Dragon Slayer uses Dragon Slayer magic, girl. Your magic resembles that type of magic, is all," Master explained, and I shrugged.

"You people are weird.." I muttered, mostly to myself.

"What kind of magic do you use, anyways?" the old man continued.

"Mama calls it Dragon Magic." people sighed.

"Well, show 'em, Lucy! Show'em your magic, use those magic rocks of yours!" Natsu looked upon my being, looking for the stones I had used earlier.

"I have eaten." I said, and then lit my palm on fire. The flame was still purplish, but a tad less lazy in its movements today. Perhaps due to the lack of rain?

"I would call that Dragon Slayer magic, though it is peculiar..." Master stated, and I felt myself becoming annoyed.

"Why would Papa wish to kill dragons? Why would Igneel wish to MURDER others.." I stopped when I realized what I'd done. I'd mentioned his name.

"Why would he wish to kill others of his kind?!" too late, I guess, when people suddenly stared at me in confusion.

"You know Igneel?" Natsu asked. I stared at him, dumbfounded.

"I never met him..." I said, calming down again.

"But you mentioned his name," he said, urging me to continue.

"He's my Papa. I never met him, but Mama has told me stories," I stated. He seemed disappointed. Master on the other hand looked at me as if I just grew a second head.

"Are you human, child?"

"What a stupid question. Of course I am," I answered. Humans are weird, sometimes calling their own inhuman due to their actions. I didn't understand humans when they did that. How could a murderer lose his right to belong to the race he was born into due to he way he acted? Master nodded, but seemed to be in deep thought.

"I didn't know there was a mage named Igneel in Fiore, though,"

"He's not a mage. That would be stupid, and cause a lot of destruction. Just imagine him wandering around in towns, people would freak out..." I sighed, and playfully made a ball with the flames on my hand.

"But he taught your mother magic,"

"Yeah, Dragon Magic. Igneel is a Fire Dragon, like DUH," I separated the flame from my palm, and grinned briefly. Perhaps the fire-eater would like some. The whole guild froze after processing my words for a moment.

"So you DO know Igneel!"

"Like I said, never me him. Mama had a big fight him a long time ago, so even though she was his mate she never got to tell him he had a dau.."

"Wait.. his mate?" Natsu blinked, and I nodded.

"Yeah... it's a dragon thing, kind of hard to explain."

"I know what it is,"

"That's surprising," I looked at the boy. He looked back. His eyes where focused, and I suddenly stood up, bowed near him, sniffed.

"I'll be damned. You smell... peculiar,"

"So, your mothers name is Maya Dragneel?" Master asked, and I blinked.

"Like I said, she and Papa had a fight a long time ago. Why would she keep his last name, that would be weird. I guess it can't keep it a secret, though, since you all know Papa. Mamas full name is Maya Clive," I sighed, and then noticed that everyone stopped dead again.

"C..Clive, you say?"

"Hm? Yeah." a woman sitting and drinking from a barrel spewed everyhing out on the table, and looked at me in disbelief.

"Has she ever mentioned any family?"

"Hm? Like Uncle? Mama said he travels a lot, and that he does reckless things. She also called him a whimp, but most people are compared to her," I shrugged, and then yawned.

"I wonder if there are any graveyards nearby..." I muttered to myself and headed out of the guild, ignoring the loud EH?! coming from the inside. And I needed to find a candle shop too.

***AND... it's gone, any inkling I might ever have had regarding where the heck this is supposed to end up. This is what happens when you try writing stuff without much inspiration going on, other than the procrastrination kind. Yeah... well, let us just say I have an important essay to hand in before I go to bed. Haven't slept yet, and it is getting rather late now. Oh well, I hope SOMEONE finds it amusing.***


	5. Chapter 5

***This has quickly become my g to story upon coming up with random ideas, since this starts earlier on than the others I have been writing, thus allowing more change in things like personality and whatnot. I like this, though I still find it random an seemingly wwithout much of a plot. Oh well, I hope you like it ;)

I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline***

I got out of the store holding two big bags with white candles. They were expensive in the south, or perhaps I just got used to all the discounts the old man in the village back north would give me. Old Gramps. He used to give me food too, sometimes during winter, when food was hard to get by. I had started fending for myself rather early, after all. In the beginning he would ask me about my home, but as the years flew by he stopped, and merely helped out. Humans are weird. Why would the whereabouts of my home and parents matter to him? True, Mama hardly ever went to the town, so I guess very few people ever saw her, but... she was real. I weren't a liar. Not an orphan either, whatever that was. The tone they said the word in just told me I weren't. Pity is a feeling I despise.

"Hm, I think it would be around here..." I mumbled for myself as I looked around looking for the graveyard. There.

"Whoa, these are nice graves," I mumbled as I walked through the gates and started doing my business. One candle for every name, mostly one per grave. There were many graves, some tended and some not. Some were old and mossy, some newer. Some people died young, and some had gotten old. The place was silent. I like silence.

Almost done. Some of these stones and flowerbeds needed attendance. I would see to it, but later on. It would give me something to do. Something to calm me down. There, the last candle.

"What are you doing?" I jumped and turned around to see an old man looking at me. He was wearing black and white, a silver cross around his neck. A priest, perhaps.

"Paying respect to that which was," I answered. I still had a few candles left, but would have to buy more next time, since I had used more than half of my candles.

"To everyone? I haven't seen you around before, do you come from Magnolia?" he didn't sound scolding, but curious.

"I have never been to this place before," I answered his last question.

"So where do you come from?"

"The North."

"It is rare for a stranger to pay respect to so many souls she never knew. Are you going to light all these candles as well?"

"There are many people I don't know, most of them I will never know. I like graveyards, since there is no suffering here. No cries of pain. Only silence," I were standing by a stone wall at the end of the graveyard, and sat down. The sky was clear, and slowly darkening. Soon it would be nighttime.

"I will have to partly disagree with you there, girl, but this is a place of serenity. People usually come her to mourn the loved ones that got taken away," as if to prove his point, I could hear faint crying, and saw a lady in black leaning forward, crying by a grave. A friend, a father, a child. Perhaps what would have been her mate.

"Crying is a waste of time," I muttered, looking at her.

"Yet many find it appealing. It is not my business meddling in their ways of handling grief," I added, and looked back at the priest.

"It's getting late, and I get the impression that southerners dislike the cold. The ground will rime tonight, so you might want to head home old man," I looked at him, and he eyed me.

"I am waiting for all to leave before I close the gates. Are you planning on spending the night, young one? Most people find this place a scary place at night, calling it haunted due to the dead that reside here," so peple usually closed the gates at night? Weird. I chuckled.

"If they came out, it would be less lonely, but as you will. I'll just light the candles and leave," I got up, closed my eyes. Come on. I knew the number of candles, reached out to all of them. There.

"Burn brightly... Fire Dragons Light," I said silently, and opened my eyes at the same time as hundreds of lights lit up with a blue flame, soon returning to a normal yellowish colour as the wax took over the job of keeping them alight. They were all in small glasses in order to keep them from making anythng else catch fire. Hopefully I wouldn't need to make any more of those in the future. My glassmaking skills were limited, so many of them had rather uniques shapes. I were also almost out of sand.

"Who are you, girl?" the priest asked, and I tilted my head.

"I am Lucy, but you don't know me, so not knowing my name is alright. I came down.. yesterday I think. From the North." I saw my hand, and smiled. I weren't sure how long I were out after Erza the scarlet mage knocked me unconscious.

"You might know my new family though. It's a guild called Fairy Tail. Technically that would make me Lucy of Fairy Tail," I showed my hand with the pink mark, and then turned, walked towards the gate. The crying woman had cried in terror when I lit the candles. I knew the sound of terror. Flashing images of corpses and blood filled my head, but I shook my head to clear it.

"Do you have a home, Lucy of Fairy Tail?" the priest asked after me. I stopped, turned to him at the gate.

"Not at the moment, but it's alright. There are no blizzards approaching, and I can live with rime. If I need to I can always camp in the woods, seeing the sacred ground is off limits as the sun sets. Northerners are quite able to freeze, but not as able as the southerners. As a fire mage I will manage even better," I waved at him, and left. Again with the questions regarding my home. He didn't need to worry. The house I used to live in hadn't been there for years. Living outside was.. normal.

Wow... there was a house. In the forest. The sun had set a while ago, and I had wandered off into the forest to find a place to settle down. Since my tracking skills were rather poor I had followed a path, and though I knew SOMEONE would have to use it in order for it to be there in the first place, I didn't expect to be a house. Now, what to do... Obviously I couldn't stay here. Humans found it strange if they woke up to find random strangers sleeping outside. I would've thought so too, though I had experienced it from time to time. They usually wanted food, shelter or valuables. I could oblige to he first two, but the third would earn people a hit to the head and a demand towards them to leave. Good old days...

The people here probably didn't want to be disurbed though, and I didn't like imposing. It felt wrong, somehow, and Mama taught me to avoid being in peoples debts. So, did I continue or should I head back. I honestly preferred sleeping in forests rather than hard cobble that would meet me in the back alleys of a town. But who knew, people might be living in houses if I followed the next trail too, and if I left the trail... I wouldn't die or anything, but I might be gone for a while. Perhaps I should...

"Lucy?" I turned in surprise and saw Natsu standing there. Had he been following me? Did he want to fight?

"What are you doing here?" he asked, and it clicked. He lived here.

"Aye!" his cat chimed in. I cocked my head to the side. He might know.

"Do people live at the end of that trail?" I asked and pointed. He looked at it.

"No... why?"

"Good," I started walking towards it. Hopefully I might find a good spot soon. If nothing else, I might find a spot to use in the future. Natsu grabbed my arm, and I turned to face him.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Into the forest," obviously. Where else would I be going when I asked him about the trail and headed in that direction?

"Yeah, I figured, but what are you going to do there?" an odd question. It was late.

"I'm finding a place to sleep. I didn't think anyone would be living out here, though. Not that it matters,"

"You don't have a place to stay?" he didn't move to let me go. That question again. It was annoying me. A little. Had I not already established that?

"If you mean like a house, no. My home burned down awhile ago, and was in the North for that matter. I lived in a cave for a while, then here and there on my way to this place.

"Didn't your mother get you a new one or something? Usually when a place burns down, you get a new one," he said, a tad awkwardly.

"Mama is out hunting," I said. She was angry, and when angry it would be best to leave her alone until she calmed down. She would most likely yell at me when she figured out I had left the town, but... I didn't want to stay there after everyone died. There was, apparently, such a thing as too much silence.

"It's going to be freezing cold outside tonight," he continued, and I nodded.

"I'm a fire mage. The cold doesn't bother me," I replied, and he sighed.

"You're welcome to stay the night on my couch."

"I don't want to impose," I replied, and made a move to walk away when he groaned and dragged me towards hs house.

"And I don't want you wandering the bloody forest on your own freezing your ass off. Come on," and like that, I got dragged into a very messy home. It smelled dirty, musty, and fiery. Considering the heaps of things laying around, it didn't actually smell so bad. Kind of homey. It was one room, a bed in one end, a kitchen in another, and then a couch in front of a fireplace. I guessed the couch to be mine, then. There was one other door, one that most likely led to the bathroom.

"Home sweet home," he said while smiling, and then headed straight for the bathroom. I sat down on the couch after scooping a few things off it.

"Does he do that often?" I asked te cat.

"Aye! Does what?" the cat sure said Aye a lot.

"Invite strangers into his house." Mama would say it's best to leave such people alone, since one never knows what they might want.

"But you're not a stranger, Lucy, you're part of Fairy Tail!" the cat said. And I got accepted befoe they knew anything about me. A strange guild, Fairy Tail.

"Hm." I hummed and laid down, closed my eyes. One night. Fair enough. I could repay him later, I guess.

"He usually lits up the fire before he goes o bed though," the cat added, and I smiled. I saw the implication, and opened my eyes and looked at the fireplace. It already had poles of wood ready to be ignited. I also spotted some matches laying next to the place, and figured he liked keeping it edible. No worried for me though, my flames would be edible enough for the boy. I rolled off the bed and squatted in front of the fireplace.

"Cat, can I take it you want me to light this up?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Aye, and my name's Happy," Happy, eh? Seems like a fitting name. I took a short intake of air and blew a thin line of fire on the wood, that was ablaze in an instant. Then I got up and headed for the couch yet again. I were already fast asleep by the time Natsu came out of the bathroom, done with whatever he did in there. Probably a shower. I didn't care.

***At least now we got to see a little more of Lucys personality. Kind of naive, I think, but the original Lucy is just that, so why not. I wonder what to write next, but it will probably be random too. Hopefully I will finish next chapter in not too long. I guess I have to START writing it before I worry about finishin it. Hope you all enjoyed it though :)***


	6. Chapter 6

***Guess what, I have an exam in approximately 6 hours. Currently having an all-nighter before the big day, and this is what I'm doing. I should pass, by all means, but I understand it when people tell me I can do better. It requires so much effort though, and if I approach it seriously from the start I end up not caring when the big day arrives. Trust me, been there done that, almost failed most of my finals after a year of taking things seriously. People really have too high expectations for me as well...

Anyways, this is another procrastination chapter, and it is even more random than usual. Enough rants from me, I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters nor its storyline. This little darling here though is mine, and I hope you all will enjoy it ;)***

When I woke up I were covered by a blanket. And I were laying on a couch. In a house... Oh, Natsus home. It was the crack of dawn, and I sat up while yawning. A new day.

I got up and noticed the boy sleeping soundly in his bed, his blanket long since descarded showing off an impressive set of abdomal muscles. Abs, was it? At the moment he was only clad in his underwear. Breakfast. Okay, so I were no master chef. My cooking skills are limited to burning stuff, mostly. This guy might have that thing called a frying pan, though. Add some butter, and suddenly the food tastes completely different after being prepared. One of the great mysteries of this world. First I might need to do my morning routine, though.

A FEW HOURS LATER

I arrived back at his house, soaking wet and carrying one huge fish along with a few smaller ones. Natsu just opened the door and looked at me, still tired it would seem.

"I don't have any money, so consider this payment for the accommodation you offered last night. I don't really know how to cook either, but I figured that Happy at least would like his raw," I dropped the fish, shook my whole body in attempt to at least get rid of some water before it started to freeze. My hair was already getting stiff.

"Uhm... thanks?" he said, his brows furrowed.

"FISH! I love you, Lucy!" Happy yelled and flew out the door towards the heap.

"No you don't, but I appreciate the gesture," I replied, and then took off. It had been a long morning. I got lost, and when I finally found a river, it was deeper than I expected it to be. The ice was also easier to break through. It might be best if I kept away from that cat from now on. He brought up unpleasant memories. Cats. I like animals, but most of them tend to dislike me. Something about the way I smell.

I entered the guild, cold and still kind of wet, regardless of my efforts in trying to run it off. Hey, at least I were clean.

"What happened to you?" Gray commented from way over at the bar.

"Went for a bath," I muttered as I made my way over there and sat down next to him.

"Your lips are blue,"

"It was a long bath," and I lost my shoes. And my toothbrush. And my money.

"What, you go for a swim in the ocean or something?" he asked sarcastically. I could tell he didn't believe my half truth.

"Don't be stupid. Salt water hardly works as a cleaning substance," not to speak of the fact that the ocean left a lot of space for a fish to run off to. He waited.

"Though I guess I ended up there in the end..."I mumbled. Didn't explain much perhaps, but I were hardly in the mood for explanations. Why did he need to know? He raised a brow at me, and I sighed.

"Say, how do you make money in a guild?" I knew the theory. Something about taking on jobs, but how did one do that?

"You pick a request on the board and get it approved by Master," he explained, and pointed at a board with a lot of papers on it. I nodded. Fair enough, that sounded like an easy task. I got up, closed my eyes. Focus. Focus on your fists. There, the movement must be swift yet powerful. Suddenly I hit my fists together and they ignited, sending a wave of heat around me, thawing and drying my body. Then I were back to normal, a dry girl heading for he board. I stumbled a bit. Shit. I might've reduced my hypothermia to a more bearable level, but my magic was depleted, and severely so. Fishing in the river probably wasn't such a good idea after all. Not that it was my first idea anyways. I were better at catching birds.

"Approve this," I said as I handed a note to the old man, ignoring a little kid standing behind me.

"Wait a minute dear. Now young man, your father is a Fairy Tail mage and sending someone after him will only hurt his pride, here you go, Lucy," he didn't even look at it before he stamped it and put it away. The kid and him kept arguing, but I chose to ignore it. Not my business. I did stop when I saw the kid leaving though, and I heard where mentioned father was. Might take a look on my way to my destination. They were relatively close...

AND THUS...

Wow. This place was cold, as in REALLY cold. And I were lost. Walking here definitely wasn't a god idea. People also failed to mention that this place had a lot of wyverns, as in beings that resembled, and despised, dragons...

TWO WEEKS LATER...

The town was busy like always in spite of the cold season, people hustling about in their furry winter-clothing. I needed some clothng in general, since my current clothing were a tad worse for wear. Now when I thought about it, I hadn't seen my bag since I woke up in the infirmary... In any case, my denim shorts had started disintegrating, being slightly charred and ripped, my t-shirt had long since been ripped to shreds, so bandages covered my breasts in order to keep me decent. People stared at me oddly where I passed, barely wearing enough clothing to cover myself in what they probably referred to as a freezing cold day. I also showed off faint markings after big claws, but they had almost healed now, and the scars would fade in no time. I still had no shoes, but I had money now, and would buy some basics later, when I possessed my bag once more.

I kicked the doors open, walked in with a neutral expression and headed for the bar. I heard a squeal. Wait... squeal?

"Lucy! Oh my gosh, I were just about to send someone after you! What did you think when you took that request?!" Mira the barmaid scolded, and I saw Master staring at me. I weren't sure if he was checking me for injuries or merely checking me out.

"Request?"

"Yes, to take out that notorious killer! That's an A-rank mission you know!" she continued. I held up my sole possession, a small bag with my prize.

"He's in prison now. I took him out," I said. Sure, he was strong. He called me names. He hit me. People get tired after hitting someone enough times. Being hit by a human, even if he is strong, doesn't bother me. He would have to be crazy strong to beat me up for real. Turns out, he wasn't.

"That's not the point, and where were you all this time anyways? I were worried about you you know. You were supposed to be back after a few days. It's been two weeks!" she looked mad. Would she hit me now? Some people hit other people when they are mad. Mama did, but she didn't get mad this quickly, and not over something this trivial. This woman didn't even know me.

"I got lost," I answered. Another half truth. I honestly did get lost, though the reason behind it would be a detour to a certain mountain with way too much snow. And monsters. The barmaid sighed and signalled me to sit before handing me a hot cup of chocolate.

"What are those markings? Old scars?"

"I got very lost, and I heal quickly," I answered, and sipped at the cup. Heat I didn't have to produce myself ran down my throat. It felt good.

"Hey, Lucy! Were you at Mt. Hakobe the other day?" Natsu yelled as he came running at me. I stopped his flaming fist before it reached its destination. How did he know, and why would it interest him?

"So that's what that mountain is called..." I replied, and sipped at my chocolate again. I let the human get away. How did I know who he was? The creep was he only one to fawn on me rather than have his instincts make him sneer. And he got away. Pity, the kid would have to live with the fact that his father no longer stayed human.

"You saw her and didn't tell me?" Mira sent a very scary glare towards the fire mage, and he visibly shrunk before her.

"YOU!?" a shout could be heard, and I turned to see a man staring at me. He seemed shocked.

"I don't know you, but don't worry. I don't know a lot of people," I said. Then I stopped. Noticed the kid behind him.

"Ah. You're the le... THAT guy," the lecher, I almost called him. 'Cause he was. But adults tended to yell when I used mean words.

"You went to Mt. Hakobe?" Mirajane asked, and I stared at her.

"Like I said. I got very lost. It tends to happen a lot. Then there were a LOT of animals around. I needed to run a lot, and I ruined my shirt... that reminds me, have you seen my bag?" I hadn't seen Natsu while being there. Guess the leacher remembered me or something.

"What are those markings you have on your body, child?" Master asked, and I looked down.

"Oh, these? Wolves at Mt. Hakobe aren't very nice... They chased me for the longest time, until I ran into a pack of wyverns. Thankfully I managed to dodge most of their attacks, and these are only shallow clawmarks." I decided to reply. It wasn't very valuable information. And with shallow, I really meant shallow. Didn't even bleed much.

"Here's your bag, by the way, and where are your shoes?" Mira had disappeared at some point, and now reappeared with my bag.

"My shoes got lost while I took a bath... I have money now though, so I might buy new ones," I dragged another black shirt out of my bag, and put it on. Ahh, the feeling of clothing on my upper body...

"You didn't ruin ANYTHING though.. that is quite an accomplishment," she said after a short silence as people probably tried understanding my statement. Ah, I guess I only told Gray about my bath... And not ruining anything? By the time I arrived I were out of magic power. As in COMPLETELY out of magic power. Hungry... Tired... I were still pretty out of it. Even Natsu almost got me with that attack of his.

"Sorry, but I might've accidentally burned a few buildings..." I added. Most of them were ruins, but still. People dislike fire, even if it saves their life, since it just as easily can take it away. There were some people too...

"Huh? I didn't hear any complaints though," added Master.

"Well, it was mostly their fault, anyways. Some guys talking about fairies, I think they were mental or something, 'cause they attacked without any reason. First people call me a lizard, then a fairy. People in the south sure are strange." I yawned, and then spotted another character nearing. Without a word I dragged another black shirt out of my bag, one that was bigger than the one I were wearnig at the moment.

"You sure are a hassle at times," I muttered, and before Gray got to enter the conversation I forced the t-shirt over his head. Mirajane laughed a little, and I turned towards the bar area. Perhaps I should sleep some here. Suddenly I got up, shook my head.

"I think I should go for another bath..."

"In the ocean?" asked Gray, now when he had gotten the shirt on, and I shook my head.

"Of course not. Salt water gets stuck in my hair,"

"But you did swim in the ocean last time..."

"No..." what on earth was Gray on about?

"You swam in the ocean?" asked Natsu. I shook my head again.

"Don't be silly."

"But you said.."

"I said I ended up in the ocean," I corrected. He had to be talking about that day.

"The day when you went fishing?" Natsu shot in.

"I guess I did bring the fish that day... but I didn't really go fishing either. It just ended up that way." things happened.

"So what were you doing by the ocean?" Gray asked, and I tugged his shirt down before it could make its way off him again.

"If you have to know, some fishermen caught me in their nets, and I got the fish as thanks for entertaining them or something. They called me a mermaid," which was weird, considering my circumstances.

"How did you end up there?"

"I woke up early, and thought I should wash up, so I went in search for a river. I found one, but then I fell in. I think I lost my shoes around the second rapids, and then I were washed out to sea."

"..."

"Lucy dear... I'm sorry to ask you this, but.. can you swim?" Mirajane asked, and I looked at her.

"Nope. I'm pretty much a rock in water." I answered, and all of them looked at me strangely. Somewhat distressed, perhaps?

"Then I shall personally teach you how to swim. Right now!" Erza declared. Where had she been all this time, and why did everyone suddenly look very scared?

***Random much? I do believe so, but I also added some little sprinkles from the original storyline, though I chose to take a different approach since the main protagonist is so different from the original Lucy. Hope you all enjoyed it. When it comes to pairings.. not quite sure if there will be any to be honest. This was not intended to become this cozy when I started it, as you might've noticed in the first chapter. That and the fact that I themed it angst and everything.

I might have to change that theming, and perhaps update the introduction... Perhaps after my exam, though. Last one before I travel to the yearly gathering in the hometown I grew up in :) Nothing like sitting around a table with 15 people and eating homemade ribs and sausages (and something that is not sausages, but resembles sausages: mår?!) plus boiled potatoes for like.. 4 hours. We Scandinavians sure like our boiled potatoes ;) that and pizza. Pizza is good. Anyways, hope you liked it! See you guys in not too long ;D***


	7. Chapter 7

***Did you know, there's actually a spellcheck-thingy installed on this writing site? I didn't until like.. 2 day ago. Might make up for my mean keyboard that just LOVES not typing the letters I press down.

I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline***

"Every day is a trial where you fight for the right to see another one," Mama declared while squatting next to me by the riverbed. She was smiling that wolfy grin of hers, the wind toying with her blonde hair. At the moment she wore a pair or ripped shorts and a black bikini-top.

"You can swim, right?" I nodded to confirm the question that wasn't really a question.

"Well, it's time to unlearn it," and with that, she pushed me into the rapids.

* * *

Many things I could say about Mama. Strong. Caring. Loyal. Crazy could be added to that list just as easily. She had her special days, that particular day being one of those, when she found new and more creative ways to educate me in the art of surviving. Lesson learned. Sadly though, at the moment a red-haired mass of fury was waiting on the other side of th water-edge waiting for me to unlearn the unlearning, or rather... she was waiting for me to relearn how to swim. Easier said than done. Hence me slowly sinking in the ocean, my limbs unmoving, drowning while reminiscing the good old days when things were a lot simpler.

* * *

"Do you know why I made you do that?" I didn't answer where I lay soaking wet on a rock by the end of the third set of rapids, bruised, battered and with lungs full of water. Mama would tell me regardless of my response, or lack thereof.

"Before you learn how to swim, you fear death and panic when you lose control in the swirling mass of water. It's as if you are caught in a net that tightens the more you struggle. Then, when you learn to swim, you learn to fight the grasp, escape from the net that follows you. The better you swim, the farther ahead you will be from the net..." she stopped, her forehead furrowed a bit.

"You still fear death, though. That doesn't change. Remember me saying how every day is a struggle where you fight to see another day? In order to fight it, you have to face it, head on. Show fear and you will be at a disadvantage. Unlearn how to swim in order to fight Death. Running away is for wimps anyways," and there it was, that smile. The feral grin with an extra edge to it. It meant another idea was forming in her head. Another lesson that would teach me how to survive in this harsh world.

* * *

Well... I had followed her lesson, and true enough, I had survived so far. Her lessons had taught me to face things head on, regardless of my chance for survival. Then I would have no regrets if Death was to claim me. Now though... Fairy Tail wanted me to learn how to swim again. I were pretty sure the woman named Erza Scarlet would end me if I didn't, or worse.. Could I do it? I didn't know. Just one way to find out, face it head on, like Mama would want me to. I opened my mouth, and bubbles burst out, slowly heading for the surface. Oh yeah, there was that minor issue regarding air. The bottom of the ocean... About time. While breathing in a good gulp of seawater I kicked off, sending me several meters upwards before I forced my arms above me, to the side in a single stroke that brought me to the surface.

There is a certain euphoric sensation that comes with mastering a new skill. I felt my mouth twist into a wide grin as I waved at Erza where she stood smiling approvingly, Gray and Natsu in the background waving back. They must've snuck out to the back of the guild at some point to see how I were faring. The moment of bliss passed quickly though as I felt the familiar sensation of doom come upon me moments before a giant fish swallowed me whole. What can I say, my luck has never been the best.

* * *

"If it isn't the mermaid resurfacing once more, eh? What brought you to the ocean today, girl?" I had just been spit out once more onto the deck of the very same fishing boat that had encountered me before, a jolly fisherman smiling sweetly at me.

"I was learning how to swim," I replied in all honesty, and he laughed heartily.

"You ought to be more careful, though I must say you have brought me a good catch twice in a row now. I'll bring you back to your guild, eh, so your family can stop worrying," family. I had gotten the habit of referring to Fairy Tail as family already. It felt.. natural.

* * *

The fisherman insisted on bringing me the whole way to the shore, saying something about not wanting to fish me up for the second time in a day. After setting me off and warning me to be careful he waved and took off again, and I stood in the back of the guild once more, kind of smelling like fish but otherwise unharmed. Since I had a feeling that my new family might wish to be told of my continued survival I chose to enter the guild right away instead of looking for a river to wash up in first.

As I entered the guild they greeted me in their useful cheery manner, raising their glasses as if toasting for an old friend. I smiled as well, started heading for the bar when.. a fist connected with my face, efficiently sending me flying into a wall. I needn't see who the fist belonged to, as my brain recalled a familiar "fight me!" just before the impact. The guild was hushed in shocked silence, and when the dust settled I saw an astounded Natsu look at his fist, looking at it and wondering what just happened. The look made me laugh, a high pitched laughter I hadn't even heard myself for a long time. This made him look up, and I grinned widely.

"Looks like you got me, dragon boy. It's on!" and with that I launched myself at him, barely seeing his own smile returning before we clashed and yet another brawl started in the guildhall, soon involving most members present.

* * *

"It's a good thing you finally learned how to swim, Erza was about to explode right there. If you think she's scary now.." Natsu was attempting smalltalk while we made our way over to his place. He had insisted on having me stay there until I got a place of my own despite the fact that I could manage the cold just fine. Like my mother used to say, if you don't need to fight to survive, then you soon forget how to survive.

"Lucy?"

"Oh, just continue talking if you want, I'm listening," I said, and he stopped, looked at me oddly.

"You're weird." he stated.

"Aye!" Happy the cat chimed in.

"Some people say that. They also call me a fairy and a lizard though, so I don't trust it too much..." I smiled and scratched the back of my head, stared at the sky.

"Southerners are fond of name-calling. The Northerners did that too sometimes, but... I guess it's different. Have you ever been called a fairy?" I focused on the boy and he chuckled.

"A fairy is another name for a Fairy Tail mage, so yeah. As of Lizard... some people call me Salamander, apparently. Now come on, it's kind of late, and we're getting up early tomorrow!" he grabbed my hand at that, started walking again. It was dark, and stars lit up the sky, showing me the constellations I used to be so fond of as a child. Still were for that matter. So Fairy Tail mages were called fairies. I guess that made sense. That meant the guys that tried to beat me up weren't too fond of my family. How strange... Fairy Tail consisted of some of the nicest people I had ever met.

"Natsu?"

"Hm?"

"Where IS Igneel?"

"..." silence.

"I don't know..."

"Oh..." what else could I say. Igneel was missing. The pessimistic part of my brain pronounced him dead, but.. Igneel was a DRAGON. Like a REAL one. Dragons didn't just die off the bat.

"But you're looking for him, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's good," we were outside the house now, and once more stopped as he turned to me. Even in the dark I could see his conflicted look, telling me that the boy didn't really feel comfortable talking about this. I felt obligated to keep talking, give him a reason why I felt it was good that he was looking for the being he clearly saw as his father.

"You seem lucky. If anyone can find Igneel, you can." when he just stood there I passed him, entered the house I had been in before. Like it was two weeks ago, messy and kind of smelly. It still bore that aura of being a home.

"Aren't you looking for him? He's your dad too, isn't he?" now he had wandered on to a genre I found rather unpleasant. Not many things bothered me, I used to find things odd rather that bothersome.

"I don't think Mama would like that." I chose the simple answer. She truly would be irked if I sought the being she claimed to be my dad out. Mad even.

"Why?"

"Dunno," I dragged the t-shirt over m head, revealing once more he bandage that kept tme decent.

"What are you doing?"

"The shirt stinks. Don't worry, I'll go and wash it tomorrow." I tossed the shirt to the ground and went to the fireplace, once more blew some fire on the blocks of wood readily waiting.

"You know, if you want to yu can borrow the shower." I looked up and he pointed t the extra door while wearing the same expression he wore when he called me weird. That.. would actually be pretty nice.

"How does a shower work?" I asked as I got up from my squatting position and cocked my head to the side. I knew what a shower was, I weren't an idiot... I just.. hadn't technically used one before.

"Come'ere," he grabbed my arm and dragged me into the small room that was complete with a bathtub with a little shower over it. I stopped dead.

* * *

Smoke filled the room, it was almost unbearingly hot. In a white bathtub a little girl with black hair sat while screaming in agony. I stood by the door, banging at it, to no avail.

"LET US OUT! PLEASE, SHE'S DYING!" fire licked upon the wall, flames filled with so much rage and hatred, I couldn't devour it without causing myself physical pain.

"PLEASE!" again, nothing. I swallowed, and started eating from the flames again, feeling like burning acid down my throat. Why? Why did it have to happen now? Why couldn't I save my friend that couldn't handle the ever increasing heat?

"MAMA, HOPE IS DYING!" tears streaming down my face, quickly dissolving in the heated air. But no one came.

* * *

"You turn on this to turn the water on, and twist this to adjust the heat... Lucy?" I got called back from my flashback, and nodded as I neared him.

"This one turns on the water, this one makes it hot or cold. Got it," I replied while pointing on the ones he had shown me.

"You okay?" he put a hand on my shoulder, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Yeah... I just remembered something. We used to have a bathtub that looked like this before my house burned to the ground. Thanks, Natsu," I smiled, and he shrugged, left the bathroom, but not before he sent me another puzzled look. When he left I discarded the rest of my clothes, including the bandages around my chest. Hot water. I had used it before, but usually I would have to heat it myself. Now, that one to adjust the heat.. I turned it, and this one to turn it on.. right?

"Hey, there's some soap over ther.. what is that?" he had entered once more, and I turned around while covering my "assets" with one hand.

"Why you little, OUT!" I sent a fireball after him. While it could do little damage, it surprised him enough to send him flying ut of the room. Before he could recover I shut the door tightly and turned te lock. Some things even I knew, and boys walking in on girl while they were changing was a big no no. That, and since he had walked in while I had my back turned, he had most certainly seen IT. The ONE thing I disliked sharing with anyone, friend or foe. Not that friends ever had been numerous over the ages. I didn't mind that, silence was usually enough.

"What's that on your back?" I heard the muffled voice from the other side of the door. I didn't want to answer him. I didn't want to recall it. I didn't want to face this today. Therefore I just turned my back to the door again. Had it been open, Natsu would've once more gotten a good view of the massive scars I usually covered with my bandages, scars that spelled out a single word. MONSTER.

***DONE. Oh my gosh, that took FOREVER, but finally I managed to jot down enough words to make a whole chapter. It's been a while now since I managed that. Going to China soon, so I thought I ought to give you guys SOMETHING before I left. The programme over there is pretty hectic, so don't expect anything in a while. Too bad, but like some person once said, "Life sucks, and then you die". Pretty much covers it, right?

Oh well, don't hesitate to give me some feedback. I would be happy if you did! Until next time.. :)***


	8. Chapter 8

***Well... the grammar thingy sucks, as it turns out. Jeez, just read through chapter 7, and the sight was kind of sorry when considering all the red lines I corrected, as in ALL that weren't names. Got fooled by the pretty colours. Fine, I'll use my eyes and have you forgive me for the ones I cannot see. If it ever gets that bad again, please do tell me.

I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its story line. This thing just keeps throwing shit in the direction of Lucy, doesn't it? Oh well, I did theme it as Angst, so I feel kind of justified. Anyways, on to the story!***

I am standing in HIS bathroom, by the door, staring at the bathtub, filled to the brim with blood, a figure standing in it, her hair long and covering her breasts and reaching all the way into the red liquid. Black and slick with more blood. Her eyes are blue, staring widely at me, her mouth opening slowly.

"There is no such thing as freedom." she says in her childish voice, and with that she takes the first step out of the bathtub, blood spilling out on the floor. Then her mouth widens, and she lets out an agonizing shriek as her body catches fire.

* * *

I heard screaming. It was so far away, but the voice was familiar. My voice. How strange. Then, as my sleep-huddled mind caught up with my body, I found myself in the forest, my breath coming in sobs, even though I wasn't crying. My fists were bloodied, the surrounding area burned to a crisp in almost a perfect circle. Finally. It was gone.

"I need to visit the graveyard again..." I mutterd, and slowly got up from my position standing on my knees. *Just kill me*. *There is no such thing as freedom*. Once more I drove my fist into the ground.

"FUCK!" and again. Again. Again.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK." I swore for each time I hit home, ignoring the searing pain slowly moving up my arm as the strain was making itself known. I am FREE from her. I gave her a FUCKING GRAVE! *There is no such thing as freedom*. My fist stopped centimetres from the ground.

"I know..." I finally whispered. Without another word I got up, followed my scent the way I came from.

* * *

A while after I encountered Natsu, walking towards me with questionmarks emanating from his being. I sent him a look to show I knew he was there and continued on my way without a word.

* * *

What was I doing here? I had no idea, to be honest. Should've caught on when Natsu mentioned today being a big day. Then, as I entered the guild, I all but got attacked by Mra, dragged off into some closet and told to accompany Gray, Happy, Erza and Natsu on this quest. Why? No idea. Erza had most certainly not invited me, so why was I still sitting on this bench in front of the train-station, staring at Gray and Natsu as they butted heads and threw insults at each other. It wouldn't be long before Erza arrived, and then they would all of a sudden act like best friends.

"What are you doing here, Lucy?" Happy asked where he sat next to me, echoing my very thoughts.

"Mira asked me to come along," or more like threatened, though no threats actually passed her lips. My instinct just told me I should do as she said.

"Why, we don't need you," he commented, and I nodded thoughtfully while toying with the bandages I had wrapper around my hands. The wounds would heal quickly enough, but I was still sore.

"I know." I answered. Just then Erza arrived, on time, dragging along enough luggage to fill a small house.

"You ready?" she said in a voice that suggested no objections. Together we entered the train, me earning just a slight curious glance from the armored woman before we all were on our way. This mission might turn out being an interesting one.

* * *

"You sure you're okay?"

"Already told you, I used to dig holes for my graves through rock all the time. This time it was a tad deeper than normal, sure, but essentially this is nothing new. My fingers will be fine, eventually." Gray was still eyeing me suspiciously while we walked towards what was hopefully our guild. My sense of direction was limited at best, the others... well, we would survive, but getting back to Magnolia would be.. interesting. As to my currently somewhat molested hands, we had encountered an issue at a train station a day or two back. A wind user had made something of a cocoon of razor sharp air in order to trap me, Gray, Natsu and Erza there while he went to some guildmeet too pretty much exterminate the guildmasters present in Clover Town. While my services had turned out to be rather useless, I did have a certain affinity to digging holes. Making countless graves had given me the skill, and this time around it was much needed. Of course, digging through concrete was a rather bothersome task, and I scraped my hands pretty badly. Mauled might be a better word than scraped. I'd experienced worse, to be honest, and didn't really get the big deal. It would heal in no time, especially after I fixed some of my disjointed limbs. Jeez. Big deal. Weird southerners. Digging graves in solid mountain had never been a piece of cake either, but it had to be done as my graveyard expanded. Tundra was pretty bad too. I had a shovel to help me at the last spurt, but the blisters had been pretty hardcore even back then. Then came the engravings on the gravestones... I really did need to visit a graveyard soon.

"I'm HUNGRY!" Natsu on his side complained loudly.

"You will bear with it until we get BACK!" Erza countered, and we all wisely ignored her rumbling stomach as we kept walking in the middle of nowhere. This felt strangely like my last mission, wandering about merely hoping for something, anything, to pop up at some point that may give me an inkling as to where the hell I was. If this WAS indeed the same, then.. this would take time.

* * *

Home sweet home. Well, Magnolia in any case. What had I learned of my fellow guild mates so far? They need to feed, a lot, and often. That would suffice for Gray, Erza, Master, Natsu and Happy. Sure, I liked eating every so often myself, but there was such a thing as time and place. In the middle if a canyon with not even a plant in sight did not fit the bill. About me, well... Let's just say that I get grumpy after some time without food. After a while I also tend to get violent. Thankfully we found our way back to the city before I was overcome with the urge to knock out a very annoying Dragon Slayer bearing a name I at the moment could't be bothered mentioning.

"I'm going to the graveyard. See you guys later," I announced and went ahead through some side street.

"That's not the right way then," Erza protested, but I held up a hand without turning around.

"I don't care, I'll find it eventually."

* * *

When the sun set I found myself squatting in front of a grave in the graveyard, covering my face with my hands. I heard steps, and knew the person before he spoke up.

"I thought you said crying was a waste of time," the prest commented, and I had to smile before I took my hands away. My eyes remained dry as I looked up on him.

"Indeed. Tears cannot bring what is lost back to you, no matter how desperate they might be. Besides..." I looked back at the grave. A child was buried here. Five years of age.

"I think I lost my tears. It would seem I am unable to recall how to cry," I saw the grave, and I could picture a child of that age, yet... I felt no urge to let water flow through my eyes. I felt no soreness in my throat. The person in front of me was dead. End of story. I had never met him. Never would. The woman had been crying in front of this very grave the other day. A waste... if her child saw her, he would be disheartened. I got up and stretched my stiff legs, yawned slightly. Slowly I turned to face the priest. He had a calm face, but also slightly curious.

"What kind of life did you have before you arrived here?"

"I lived in a village up north, out of Fiore. I might go back there when Mama comes back from hunting, probably won't be long..." the time when Mama would return was nearing. I might miss the people in Fairy Tail, but.. all things end eventually. My time here would too.

"Until then, though, I do believe I have some work to do here. I might not be done today, but I will at least do something for the people that was." I stretched my body and then went on to the side of the graveyard with the older graves. Not all of them remained attended these days, so they needed a good makeover. Besides, I needed something to calm my nerves, and this was a good way to do just that.

"It is a strange hobby you have, attending graves belonging to people you never met," the priest was following me, probably to tell me to leave in not too long. Slowly bedtime was nearing, nearing for the both of us.

"Many things are strange, old man. Dying is one of the few things that aren't."

"I guess that is one way to look at it. I do wish to get home soon though, so..."

"I will leave, of course. I do remember the fact that southerners close their graveyards during the night. I merely needed to see this place." I stood up from the grave I had been weeding. I could continue in the morrow perhaps. Or mayhap after my hands had returned somewhat back to normalcy. It stung using them.

"What have you done to your hands, girl?" the man asked as we walked side by side towards the gate.

"I attempted to dig in concrete. Not the best idea, but it worked out in the end. Perhaps will be come upon each other in the morrow!" I smiled and waved before setting off running. Food, exercise, sleep. Those were the things I would like to do today. Perhaps some bandages first? Then I would need to visit the guild, or Natsu's home. The guild it was then.

* * *

The stars are pretty things. I always liked the stars, liked gazing at them whenever the clouds receded from the night sky. During the winters of the North most of the day also held stars. My steps moved slowly as I with my finger drew the different zodiacs present there. I knew most of them, had always had a thing for the art hidden up there. Leo, Pisces, then Orion. No Zodiac that one, but still...

"Farther, farther, up and down, chase the nasty monster down. Monsters murder, monsters lie, therefore monsters need to die." I stopped dead when I heard the chant performed with a childish melody in contrast to the male voice singing it.

"Up the Mountain Road it lives, on the forest floor it sleeps. If you come upon it once, all your treasure then it keeps,"

"Get your pitchforks, get your guns, get your fire, make it run. Farther farther, all around, hunt the nasty Monster down. Monsters murder, monsters lie, therefore monsters need to die..." I stared at the group in front of me, a good ten guys with wicked grins, carrying with them what seemed to be sledgehammers.

"I got it right, didn't I, that song? You've heard it before, no? Lucy's song? Your song. I have greetings from someone you might know, and he has a message I have been asked to give to you directly..." his grin widened.

"It has more verses," I commented instead while clenching my fists. I knew what would come now. They laughed, the guys, over my needless piece of information. Then they charged. Here we go again. This was going to hurt lie a bitch.. for all of us.

***Need. To stop. Writing. Jeez, finally done with the third of my stories. The one that started off making the least sense to me, yet that somehow started making sense to the general reading crowd soonest. Perhaps because my shrouded in mystery thing didn`t quite work out seeing how I didn't know where this was going.. at all. Oh well. Here we are. Now I have updated ALL my stories. How will this end?***


	9. Chapter 9

***Hello, once more... I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. This line has been frequently written lately, hasn't it? Never mind that though, on to the story!***

I was a strong person, but not due to my capabilities when it came to combat. My main strength lay in my ability to endure massive amounts of physical attacks. This didn't mean that I couldn't land some good punches myself, by all means. As things stood though, I never really did learn much about that thing called defense, seeing how it went against the whole face things head on theme I had been raised to live by. And when ten guys attack you with sledgehammers... It hurts. It hurts a LOT. Did I mention it hurts?

It all ended with my unexpected escape. I made a run for it, and it hurt more than just physically at that point. My pride, it suffered greatly. Well, at least I got to use my newly acquired skill, swimming. Saltwater would cleanse my wounds. It hurt, but it would cleanse them. Therefore I endured, though I admittedly had to make port by the guild so I didn't pass out.

* * *

Slowly I dragged my damaged body up on the shore by some trees, and managed to sit up against the tree-trunk so I once more could look at the stars by the edge of the ocean. I had never seen the ocean before Fiore. What a loss it had been, living so long without seeing such glory. It made the stars even more beautiful, especially since the still water reflected them making it seem all the more infinite. *Hey, kiddo, remember what I taught you, eh? No sleeping the first hours after a major trauma, makes it one major pain in the neck to wake you up again!*.

"Yeah, yeah... I*cough*know..." I uttered back to my at present imaginative mother that would be standing over me, her eyes scolding. Then she would smile when I answered like that. *Hah! I raised no wimp after all, nor will you ever become one 'cause I won't let you! Remember, if you ever stop fighting to survive you forget HOW to survive!*. I knew exactly how she would be, since she was my greatest idol, the one being I always had admired more than anyone. Strong, vicious and loyal to the bone. And with a very imaginative mind, always speculating on new ways to fight, new ways to survive.

"Why the hell would they do that? Just declare war on us so openly?!" I heard the distinct voice of Gray Fullbuster, and I instantly held back another cough as the sound of his voice brought me back to reality. It might be a good thing, or I might've fallen asleep where I sat in the cool night. The boy was standing in the clearing behind the guild, staring at the sea as I was. What was he on about?

"Dunno, but they did something stupid making us their enemies. Phantom Lord, we're all going to their guild tomorrow to show them why no one messes with Fairy Tail," Natsu too. Why the sudden crowd this late at night. Shouldn't they be sleeping or something?

"Is Levy alright, by the way?" Gray continued to ask after Natsus little rant. Levy? Something happened to that feisty little Blunette I met so briefly that other day? The girl that always was accompanied by those two weird beings, Jet and Droy? Their team was.. Shadowgear, wasn't it?

"She's managing, but got beaten up pretty badly. Jet and Droy too... They'll have to stay at the hospital for a while." Indeed, it was Jet and Droy, I wasn't mistaken.

"Everyone else is accounted for?" Why did they need to be accounted for?

"Everyone but Lucy. Erza is checking the graveyard now." And of course.. people looking for me. Just what I needed. I had attempted to keep the mess created after fighting those guys at a minimum, but sooner or later someone probably would come over the guys, and the minor craters in the ground, some made by me, some by them.

"Alone? I thought everyone had to accompany each other," huh?

"She'll manage. If anyone even TRIES to beat her..."

"I feel sorry for everyone attempting that..." then they fell into an awkward silence. Attack? Beaten up? Hospital? Phantom Lord? Enemies? But if everyone should be accompanied, then... I ought to find Erza before... I'm not going anywhere, am I? It hurt to move. Nope, didn't think so. Even breathing was a pain in the neck. Ugh, I couldn't just be laying around here either.

"OI, have Lucy been by here?" I heard Erzas distinct voice as she neared the boys, and I saw them shake their heads. Thankfully there was a bush hiding most of my body. Being found now.. might be awkward. It might also hurt my already bruised pride. Running away from a fight, what had become of me? If Mama really was here she would be very disappointed.

"How strange..."

"Why?"

"Well... according to the people I asked, she was running towards the guild." ah, Titania asking question, always an interesting thing to see. The trick to survival seemed to depend on the ability to answer very quickly under immense mental pressure.

"Maybe she got lost?"

"Ah..." the unified sigh the three of them let out made me kind of annoyed. Kind of. I didn't get lost THAT often, did I? Or maybe I did... Yeah... Okay, time to get back to the house belonging to one of the three standing there. I needed some bandages I knew I should have laying about at his place. Silently I slipped back into the water, preparing to dive under. I might make it back before him if I hurried. Salt water cleanses. It hurts, but it cleanses. This was going to be one of those long nights, wasn't it?

"Did you hear that?" suddenly I could se the three of them staring in my direction where I at the moment lay half soaked in water. Shit, they didn't hear me, did they? I guess the pinkhaired boy DID have a good sense of hearing, yet... I groaned, rather involuntary, but I guess the secret was out already anyways.

"Who goes there? Show yourself!" Erza announced, drawing her sword as she spoke.

"Mind giving me a few minutes? Holy, let go of me you bast.." and then, too late, I recalled the second reason behind my escape from the deep waters. Sharks. Just great. Just..lovely.

* * *

"Did she just..?"

"It would appear so."

"By a shark?"

"Indeed... Natsu, you get her!" Erza ordered, and the Dragon Slayer actually seemed to be preparing to go into the shark-infested water when what appeared to be a mini volcano erupted beneath the surface, efficiently sending a lot of sharks floating. Up from the water a head appeared, slowly moving towards them. As it neared, soon emerging from the water, they all recognized a very battered Lucy as she made her way to the shore.

"Enough. I've had ENOUGH..." she muttered, her voice cracked but clearly annoyed.

"Lucy?" Natsu was staring at her with disbelieving eyes.

"I'm going in for a dri.. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE GUILD?" before them was a very much rampaged guild, pieces of metal sticking out in almost every direction. Well, someone had had a blast...

"Screw this, I'm going back to the house. Need some.. bandages. Ugh, this hurts.. a lot..." then she fell forward, her breathing ragged.

"Lucy!" the three of them turned her around, and she groaned. Her whole body was.. bruised, bleeding, as if hit repeatedly with a very heavy object. That wasn't shark-teeth. Not half of it could be caused by shark teeth.

"Yeah yeah, no sleeping the first hours after major trauma, makes it a major pain in the neck to wake me up..." she muttered, her eyes not focusing properly.

"I don't think... I can move*cough*though. Sorry 'bout that..."

"What happened?"

"I got called a few names again. These*cough*weren't southerners though. Northerners. Definitely Northerners. Give me some*cough*hours and I'll be good. Yeah... A few hours," there was blood coming with her cough, and she closed her eyes, started humming on some childish melody belonging to a song none of them had heard before. Except from that and a small movement that was her breathing she might as well be dead.

* * *

By the gods did I have a headache or what. I might've puked too, had it not been for the general lack of food in my system. I wanted fried fish, for some odd reason I couldn't explain. Hmm... food. I needed food, and now. Fine. I sat up suddenly, aware that I didn't sleep on the forest floor. Then... this place wasn't familiar at all. All white and... hospitalish. Gah, they had brought me to such a place... Couldn't say I liked hospitals much, so I might as well do what I did the last time I got submitted, not too long after the end of my village. I got up silently, looked to both sides.. and made a run for it, out the window. Okay, so the building technically had four stories, and I had to be stuck on the top floor. The landing was hard, but I managed to get up, started running while some shocked doctors hanging outside the hospital building started yelling after me. Thankfully I had managed to land on some bushes, so I didn't sustain much damage. Merely a few more bruises, considering how the bandages that covered most of my body shielded me against most things called sharp branches and such.

This whole ordeal was followed by a longer long run through Magnolia city dressed as a mummy while I attempted to find out what way I should take. It sure took some time, but eventually I found myself at the house that hopefully would hold some garb for me to wear. The way this was going, I would need a clothing shop to keep me decent. My clothing was being ripped apart faster than ever. Had to be a Fairy Tail thing. Had to be. Half of them did seem to walk around half-naked as it was, after all.

* * *

Where the hell was everybody? I had considered going to this small pond where there would be a lot of fish just waiting to be caught, but I had decided against it. The fact that I technically couldn't walk straight was a good reason to say now just this once, though the thought of fried fish still intrigued me. Thus I had made my way towards the guild, only to find it pretty much abandoned. And with pretty much.. well.. no one was there. Not a soul. The only thing waiting was a few missions and a good stack of alcohol marked with warnings against anyone that might feel tempted to steal it. It meant they would be back, I guess, but exactly WHEN I couldn't tell for certain. Point was, no cooked food would be found at the guild, and I would not take the chance on home-cooking. That would be risky even on one of my good days, and then there was that issue with my straight walking. I almost managed to do that now, but it required concentration.

"It would seem they left me behind..." people tended to do that every now and then. I merely shrugged and decided to wander the city in my newly acquired clothing until I found a good place to eat. There had to be SOME place that might welcome a broke and broken Fairy Tail mage that really wanted food, right? Okay, so my hopes weren't that high, but it couldn't hurt trying. Besides, I might come upon someone I knew. Worst case scenario, I might even just hang out at the graveyard until my guildmates returned.

As I walked through one of the back streets, I sensed the presence of another mage. A Fairy Tail mage, perhaps? Hadn't I been abandoned then? How surprising if that was the case. Rain started to fall as I turned around to face my fellow mage.

"Drip. Drip. Drop..."

***And we do once more find ourselves at the end of yet another chapter. What do you know, I made it again! Yay me! Oh well, I hoped you liked it. Ah, how I like mixing in "what the fuck?!" elements into this one. Of course, I do attempt to follow the storyline somewhat, though I add a few details here, remove some ither details there. Until next time!***


	10. Chapter 10

***Hello fair maidens and... bloaks? Sheilas and bloaks, that's what you are. Or readers, if you would prefer a general reference. If not, I would be generally curious as to what business you would have with this, the tenth chapter of "A Thousand Graves". It has been a while, hasn't it? I needed something to do, so I decided to go to my baby with these strange new ideas. Why not, right?

I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. My sense of humor is a tad too dark, I'm 'fraid...***

"..." I stared at the being. Blue. Blue all over.

"Did you hit your head?" I asked as the being didn't seem to be answering me. The sky had been blue not too long ago, but now.. where did those clouds come from? My instinct should've warned me of the water falling down.

"Drip. Drip. Drop." the sound of the rain mimicked that of the being. What the...

"Happy. What do you want?" I was losing my patience, and this cat.. was acting stranger than normal.

"You were supposed to stay in the hospital until everyone returned." he said then, and I sighed.

"Hospitals don't suit me, and I can walk perfectly.. well," a statement not really supported as I had to lean against a wall in order not to fall.

"What are you doing here anyways? Thought you and Natsu kept together like.. always." not an understatement. That cat followed his self-appointed father everywhere like a shadow. Reminded me of Odin in the strangest ways. Odin liked following Mama around too, before he died, that is.

"He gave me an important mission." the furry little thing answered me, bringing me back from the flashback involving a one eyed cat that rarely uttered a sound in comparison to other cats that lived in the village.

"Which is..?" I would very much want to know what would make the shadow part with his owner while he and the rest of them went.. somewhere, the gods knew where.

"Watching over you."

"Why?" again with the pampering. I had survived for the full length of my life, had I not? Without basic survival skills that would've turned out differently. With death, for instance.

"You get lost a lot." like that would explain everything.

"I do NOT get lost a lot!" I exclaimed in pure indignation. I managed quite fine, thank you very much!

"So where are you now?"

"Magnolia."

"Where in Magnolia?"

"..." I groaned as the blue cat got his point proven. I had no idea where I was.

"Well it's not my fault, Mama never felt the need to teach me how to notice my surroundings beyond things that might slow me in a fight," it was a lame excuse, but still, I spoke the truth. Sense of direction and general defence... The two things that probably would be the death of me one day if I didn't learn the basics. But everything has to die eventually. Knowing the means that would end me didn't matter much. That, and those two things bored me. So much effort. The cat stared again.

"I will personally pluck your whiskers if you continue looking at me like that. Now.. you should know where I can find some fish..." what was it with these people, or rather Fairy Tail mages, that kept stirring up in my dormant emotions? Why did they keep making me angry, annoyed, and at times even happier that I ever thought I would be? And how?

"You want fish too? Let's go to the pond, then!" he says, his annoying stare all but forgotten along with seemingly everything mentioned before fish. He was a cat, alright. Just like Odin.

We walked through the town, me still having issues with walking properly, the town being eerily quiet for some odd reason. Where was everyone? Did they really dislike rain this much? Perhaps, they did seem to have a lot against the cold, so...

"Drip. Drip. Drop..." I turned to see a woman dressed all in blue and holding one of those fancy ass umbrellas that finer ladies used to have. The kind that in general didn't work very well with rain, but that looked classy. Yeah... This whole town might be going mental, and coming from me that really said something. I kept staggering along, my head turned to stare at the odd woman that seemed gloomy and just plain weird. I stumbled since my gaze wasn't glued to the road like it should be, and then decided to let her be. Fish was more important. Heck, FOOD was more important. Still, with my heightened sense of hearing I heard her words even though she had stopped back in the alley mouth with what I would assume to be a companion I hadn't seen as I and Happy kept walking towards what I hoped to be a pond with a LOT of fish.

"Juvia can't find her, Sol."

"Non non non. We cannot return without her in our custody. This is bad." did he have an actual accent? A terrible accent at that, too... And the woman. She smelled like rain. Not a bad smell, I did find rain quite enjoyable, really, but people usually smelled like, well, people. Not just rain.

"Master will be cross if Juvia doesn't find the girl like he requested. Juvia will be punished..." and did the girl address herself in third person? I stopped and turned to look towards the girl again, a strange man standing next to her. Earth. Wet earth. I blinked.

"Worry not, I am certain the girl is in the area. Lucy will be found, as Master requested." I froze. Lucy. That was me. And Master. Master wanted me gone? He wanted me found? I had never seen these people before, so they might be from another guild. Requested to take me away. But... if Master wanted me gone, then he could've just told me so. He was too kind... That man. He wanted me to go, but lacked the will to tell me in person.

"Lucy, the pond is this way. Lucy?" I turned to the cat again.

"Why are you crying, Lucy? Are you hurt? Are you so hungry that it hurts? I have a fish here if you want it before we get to th.."

"Southerners are too kind." I fell to my knees, tears falling freely as I felt all strength leave me. Southerners are too kind. They are so kind, it hurts. This is why feelings are such a hassle. This is why I locked them all away. This is why... my head snapped up, I scuffled up on my feet again.

"You should go for a walk, cat."

"Lucy? What's wrong?"

"I said... you should go for a walk. I have urgent business to attend to." the cat is confused. Of course he's confused. He just saw me break down in tears, then suddenly go all strictly business. He is a cat. He didn't hear.. the insult. He didn't hear.. anything. Master might want me to leave. He may have sent these beings that I didn't know in order to make it easier on anyone. No one stayed for long anyways. They usually left at some point. Everything dies. Everyone leaves. Those two statements held hands more oft than not in my life. That did NOT, however, mean that I would openly accept ANYONE referring to them as trash. They might've lied, but they stuck to me longer than I ever would've expected. They even sent me to a hospital when I got injured. Though I didn't enjoy hospitals, I could appreciate the gesture. And if he wanted me to leave... If everyone wanted me to leave, then so be it. I would go with a bang.

"Sorry 'bout this, Happy..." I mumbled, and before the cat got the time to come up with any ideas as to my fluctuant mood-swings I grabbed his tail, swung the creature around above my head and sent him flying as a star in the distance. That would keep him away for a while, and make their dismissal more morally acceptable to them. Weird southern customs. Hating me had to have another reason than my existence alone. Then I turned to stare at the culprits, that had noticed my first grade toss of the poor creature that had done less than nothing to deserve it.

"Yo." I greeted the two, and the woman started slowly walking towards me.

"Drip. Drip. Drop." she chanted again. Was it some kind of mantra people used in the south? Perhaps I should note that for myself. Wasn't like I would leave Fiore only because the mages of Magnolia had grown tired of my presence. Knowing local customs might come in handy when encountering others, people than might be less hospitable towards total strangers. I doubted I would ever meet anyone as kind as Fairy Tail after all.

"So, who are you?" I asked, tried stalling. Why was I stalling? Who knew...

"We are Juvia of the Deep, the Rain woman," the girl was kind enough to reply, and I nooded.

"Nice to meet you, Juvia. I'm Lucy. Fairy Trash." and with that I set off, leaving a small crater after my sudden and powerful acceleration. Might as well go with a bang, right?

"Boom," I uttered right before my fist hit her face.

* * *

MEANWHILE

Chaos. If the battleground was to be described with a single word, that would be it. Chaos. Magic flying in every direction, shouts from both sides, pulsing like a living thing as the winning odds kept moving from one side to the other. Fairy Tail versus Phantom Lord. The clash between the two had been pending for a while now, with them being the two top guilds in the whole of Fiore, yet bitter enemies. The masters had never really been friends after all, and with good reason. One sought happiness for its members, the other fortune. While the terms could go for the same in certain situations they remained radically different.

Right now the ground remained a fighting mass of magic circles, beams, shots, punches and kicks while above.. Above was the fight between the Salamander and Iron Gajeel, two Dragon Slayers. It had been going on for a while, the two of them still testing each other out, but Natsu slowly letting his anger fire him up. A crash, and something came crashing down from the roof, hitting the floor with a big bang, creating panic down below as people moved to see what, or who, had fallen from the room where the Masters were supposed to be fighting. Then, suddenly the older Dragon Slayer managed to hit the Salamander to the ground, standing up above as if the difference in hight made him superior. A man appeared next to him, a man with blinds covering his eyes.

"You got her?" Gajeel asked, staring down at the scarfed boy, his eyes amused as he knew that the fellow Dragon Slayer could hear him even through the noise. Natsu stood up, ready to continue the battle but also curious as to what this metal-freak was talking about. Erza was yelling retreat in the background, but the pink-haired idiot ignored it. Like hell he was retreating NOW. Not EVER.

"Such SADNESS! She fought so hard, yet there was nothing she could do!"

"Come on, Natsu! We are falling back!" Erza is there, desperate, andgry, and sort of scared. The boy doesn't know WHEN he knew the falling object to be old gramps, but he knew that he had known for a while. He could feel the anger that was building up in him. Like hell he was giving up on the fight now.

"NO, like HELL we are!" he uttered his thoughts, and she begged him. Actually BEGGED him. The great Titania. Now that was one of the most scary things he ever had experienced. So he obliged. Reluctantly. He did, however, catch that last phrase that messed up with that newfound determination.

"Lucy has been captured..." that smile. That grin as the Iron Dragon Slayer stopped to smirk at the Fire Dragon Slayer before disappearing. Lucy. As in...

***Yeah. Somehow it took more time than anticipated to continue this story. Perhaps because it slowly is sliding further and further away from the original storyline. Or is it getting closer? Haven't quite decided yet. We'll find out eventually, the lot of us. If I ever finish chapter 11, that is. Haven't even started yet. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Other than that, I hope you liked the chapter. Yeah... Until next time! ***


	11. Chapter 11

***Another Chapter. Another piece in the puzzle that makes out this story. I do not own Fairy Tail nor its characters or its storyline. I dare you to guess why...***

Skycell. A cage where gravity works against you. I sat on the edge, my legs dangling freely while I didn't really enjoy the view. Mountains. Why enjoy it anyways? What did I have? Since when would the loss of friends ever get to me like this? Since Fairy Tail, apparently. Since I got accepted into a group of strangers as if I were family even with all the things that would usually alienate me from everyone. I had a thing for death, for starters. I wore a lot of black. I could take a lot of damage without seemingly caring. I possessed strength that rivaled that of many grown men.

"You are certain you do not wish to take my offer of nicer accommodation?" I heard a slick voice coming from the other side of a door leading out from this prison.

"Yes."

"May I ask you why?"

"You called them trash." I replied stiffly, and the man sighed heavily on the other side. I dared him to enter this room. I dared him to so much as open the door, and I would have at him again. Even if he could beat me easily, bound as I was, with magic-restricting rope no less.

"Who, Fairy Tail? They are trash. Rude, unsophisticated trash with no sense of decency."

"I dare you to come into this room and repeat your words." I said with acid practically dripping from my words. I sent a poisonous glare towards the door, silently willing it to open so I could attack.

"I do not wish to hurt you, but unless you stop behaving like this I might have to." that voice belonging the leader of Phantom Lord. Threatening, slick and creepy. I didn't like him. His case wasn't improved when he bound me by my hands and secured me to the wall with magic constricting rope. There was no escape as of yet, not even through this wide opening I sat in. The rope would merely cause my arms to dislocate since they were behind my back.

"Maybe I wish to die." I stated simply and stared back out on the plains. Maybe I truly did. Feelings. I knew, that at this moment, Fairy Tail was butting heads with Phantom Lord. They were strong, Natsu, Gray, Erza and the others. I hoped that girl, Levy, would heal soon. She had smiled so sweetly at me the first time we met. I had a name. They might bury me, if they ever found my body. Might be best that they didn't, on the other hand. This leader of Phantom Lord... he wouldn't kill me quickly. Why he kept me here also remained a mystery. Would it not be sufficient to remove me from Magnolia?

"That is a lie." he replied, and I heard his footsteps retract.

"Yes it is." I agreed softly, my eyes starting to become all watery again.

"By the way, Lucy. Your Father says hi!" I heard the yell from down the hall, and my eyes dried instantly. My.. Father. As in Father? That couldn't be. Could it? If HE stood in the shadows of this ordeal... If HE had been the true Mastermind, then.. everything changed. Fine. Time to find out just how durable this rope was. Sure, it was magic constricting. Getting my hands loose without gaining strength from a momentum was a good as impossible. I still remained somewhat strong, however. Father, huh. That also explained why my wounds had been tended to, and why the leader of Phantom Lord had been so kind to offer me nicer accommodation than this airy and cold stone cage. Sky cell, where gravity works against you. It could be used as well, though. Used to make my own weight matter, used to level up my strength a few notches.

Of course... I would admit, throwing myself out of the building might seem like a good idea when trying to rip the rope from the wall, witch DID work by the way, but I didn't exactly magically stop falling when I had gained my freedom, and there was a fair distance to the ground. As in, a possibly fatal distance. Okay, thread body through the hole created by bound hands in order to move mentioned bound hands forward. Chew like hell. Come on come on come on come on. Shit, not going to make it. I'm not going to make it and I'm going to die squished like a pancake on that rocky ground. Would this be the end? No. I refused to accept it, I refused to stop fighting. I refuse. I refuse. Come on, rope, just SNAP ALREADY. Fuck, too la..

"LUCY!" my brain picked up that large shout right before something, or rather someONE crashed into me moments before I landed head first into the ground. That same someone also took the blow of that wall we crashed into the moment after. I was baffled. Absolutely flabbergasted. Just seconds ago I had been angrily denying my impending death while being aware of it coming at me anyways. The next, I weren't dead. I weren't even injured by my fall. And secondly, the one to save me was none other than Natsu Dragneel. What on EARTHLAND was HE doing here?

"Jeez, you're crazy.." he muttered where he lay somewhere beneath me, and I had at least the decency to move away, only to continue chewing on my rope. Tough rope, this. WHen I didn't reply he sighed, sat up and grabbed my hands, untied them. Ah, the sweet freedom. Not that it would last long though. Natsu was sitting beside me, eyeing me as I stared at him with distrust in my eyes. Who could blame me, I saw no reason for him to be here. He was a nice person, but his guild did not wish for my presence. And Father. *Your Father says hi!*. The boy didn't need my resentment. The way the world repelled from me was my fault, and my fault alone. Hatred would cause nothing but grief. I needed to go somewhere far off, and then I needed to hit something. Rocks, trees, I didn't care. But not people. I didn't wish to hurt anyone. I wished for the world to just leave me alone.

"Why are you here?" I found myself asking. My hands remained in my lap, trembling. I need to get away. I need to run. I can stay no longer.

"To save you, DUH. And to beat the crap out of the people in this guild for messing with Fairy Tail." he got up at that, pumped his fist in the air to emphasize his point. Oh, so that was the case. The revenge over Phantom Lord hadn't yet come to pass.

"Master didn't tell you?" I continued asking. Get up Lucy. No need for needless questions. Just get up and leave. You are already rejected. There is no need for you to remain polite. But I wanted to. This boy was nice. Annoying, perhaps a bit stupid at times.. but ultimately, he was nice.

"Tell me what?" and to top it off, he didn't know. Or he didn't want to tell me that he knew. I suspected the first option, since this boy wasn't one to use lies, whether it would help him or not. And he was a bad liar too.

"I.. I quit the guild." there it was. A lie to cover up the truth. But he might take my removal the wrong way. Even if he did indeed pretend to even remotely like me, he may take the action of removing me as a member by force the wrong way. It was best alienating myself like this. By doing so it would be easier on everyone. Besides, if they believed me to be not caring, Father would cause less harm. Father had done this to hurt me the only way he knew how. I didn't look Natsu in the eyes as I uttered those words, kept my gaze fixed on the ground while I got up on my feet. My hands kept clutching my worn black t-shirt to stop the shaking. I need to go. I need to run.

"You're lying." and again, he saw through my lies so easily. Was I such a bad liar? Amazing how everybody just called me a liar. Perhaps that was another of those unknown customs I knew less than little about. Like calling people names. And making sounds when it rained.

"Am not!" I protested and did the mistake of looking into his eyes. He was SO sure. He KNEW I was lying.

"You are." he repeated. It didn't matter. Lies or no lies. I needed to go.

"I need to go."

"Where? To kick these peoples asses, 'cause I'm totally in on that."

"Already did that, kind of, and NO, I have places to be." I looked up at the sky cell, no one was staying up there yet. No one knew I had escaped. My knees were buckling.

"Lucy... are you SCARED?" he asked, and I looked at him, managed a shaky laugh.

"Terrified, actually. I just found out why Phantom Lord attacked Fairy Tail, other than apparent hatred or odd Southern customs. Not sure which." I dragged a hand through my hair, swallowed what might actually be tears. There was no point in hiding my fear.

"What?" a short, concise answer.

"I don't know the customs of Southerners, okay? Haven't really stayed here that long, and I'm no good with customs..." never was, for that matter. People often acted strangely, liked saying one thing and doing another.

"No, not that, and it isn't a custom, by the way. Why did Phantom Lord attack Fairy Tail?" he asked with urgency, and I looked at him. Really looked. Tried making my shaking hands stop shaking.

"Father wants me back." I said, took a deep breath to avoid a panic attack. Why would Father want me back? After so long, why NOW? This kind of behavior was right up his alley though. I didn't need to know anything else than his greeting to know that Father had paid the man with the slick voice to ruin everything that might keep me from returning. Especially if he wanted me to return. No way would he associate with such a foul man otherwise.

"Wait. Your dad... As in IGNEEL?" he seemed to be having difficulties accepting that as a truth. I could understand why, if he thought I were talking about Igneel. And why would Igneel just suddenly choose to come looking for me anyways? And why order a guild to fetch me? Of course, Master had sent people to toss me out too, but they had worked double, it would seem. For both Master AND Phantom Lord.

"No, not my dad. Father. They're different people. Completely different people according to Mama. Doesn't matter. I'm not a member of Fairy Tail anymore."

"Yes you are, in case you haven't noticed. You still have your mark."

"Master would disagree with you."

"No he wouldn't."

"He sent mages to escort me out of Magnolia. I know I'm not the best of company, and I'm not good with customs, but he could've told me, you know. I would've left. I would've accept.." a fist interrupted my speech, sending me to the ground and a while further. I sat up, touched my jaw where his fist had landed. Kind of sore. Not that I weren't used to it, but he usually gave me a warning before attacking me.

"Don't you DARE insult Old Gramps like that." he said cooly. Insult him?

"What do you mean, insult?" I wouldn't insult that old man even if it killed me. He was one of the nicest, really tiny old men I had encountered in my life. He had welcomed me into his guild while performing a smile, and even asked me a couple of times how I was doing. Who did that?

"You said he sent people to escort you out of Magnolia."

"He did."

"He DIDN'T." he denied fiercely once more, seemingly getting ready to punch me again.

"He's called Master, isn't he?" I asked.

"Yes, but.."

"The mages said Master ordered them to take me." this made him stop in his stance, look at me oddly.

"Wait. They said Master. Only Master?" his brows furrowed.

"Yes." I confirmed.

"Lucy.. all guilds have Masters. Since we're Fairy Tail members Old Gramps is OUR guildmaster. Unless they said Master Makarov they were talking about THEIR guildmaster."

"What?" Natsu sighed, the last ounce of rage leaving him.

"Come'ere" he offered me a hand to get up.

"So he doesn't want me gone?" I had to be sure. I didn't want it to be a lie, but wanting it to be true didn't necessarily MAKE it true.

"'Course not. You're family. Now come on," he urged me on, still offering me that hand.

"You're not lying?" I asked in a thin voice, and I felt tears threatening to spill again.

"No. Why would you even think that?" and with that, I finally broke down in tears. Again. Everything was just too confusing. Everything was just too.. too overwhelming. I wasn't banished. And Father was coming for me.

"Ah, don't cry. Come on, it's going to be alright. We'll go back to the guild. Probably a good idea..." I started to sob when he said that, and he became all flustered with his words. In the end he merely hauled me up on his back and started walking. So much for my stoic appearance. So much for my so called acceptance over the fact that people liked leaving in the end. So I might want to stay. More than anything I had wanted in a very long time. Now only one issue remained. One hell of an issue too. Father. And the mystery remained. Why would he want anything to do with me?

***Another chapter done. Yes, it was kind of a replica of the real story, but with an alternate Lucy. Hope you liked it anyways. I never said I'd step away from the storyline completely in any case. I promised a friend I'd give this out today too, so I'll release this out of my usual releasing time. Until next time!***


	12. Chapter 12

***I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline***

It was in the basement of the Fairy Tail guild, filled with people drinking their pain away. Emotional pain after the shock of seeing their master being literally beat to the ground, now being healed by a childhood friend without any promise of recovery. Physical pain in the shape of cuts, bruises and broken limbs. Now normal people might call this a broken guild, but that was far from the case. Even with the angst around their fallen Master and their stinging wounds hope remained vibrant, people chatting away, laughing and making jokes. There were many damaged souls in this guild, souls that sought the company of others, and found it here. Their Master was their Father, their Barmaid a mother. The rest were like sisters and brothers, watching out for each other, protecting each others. One would have to look far and wide to find a family just like this.

A fight was breaking out amongst some of the younger people, but excluded to of the regulars that at the moment were busy verbally assaulting each other in the corner of the guild. Both of them belonged to what was referred to as the strongest team in Fairy Tail. Why they were verbally rather than physically assaulting each other? Because Erza Scarlet was sitting nearby, a little too close for comfort should they actually lash out at each other, but preoccupied enough for them to argue without risking sudden death. She was sitting by the corner, next to a now thankfully sleeping Lucy. They had all been briefed on the matter of this Father that wanted her back. That was also everything they could get out of the girl. A man that Lucy, the girl that didn't even fear death seemed terrified of.

There was also that unresolved matter of what happened before she was brought here. She had obviously been crying, which was odd in itself, but she also started laughing when the people from the guild greeted the two returning. A really nice sounding laughter, one they didn't remember hearing before. After the moment was over though she got off the back of Natsu and crawled to a corner where she closed her eyes and remained.

* * *

"Titania?" I muttered, remember one of the names belonging to the woman that called herself Erza Scarlet. I didn't open my eyes, but I could feel her sitting next to me. I also felt her jumping slightly since she obviously thought I'd been asleep.

"You're awake." not a question. She was like that, the red-haired mage. Always direct, firm and proper. And at times, very violent. Not that I judged her for it, it made her who she was.

"Sorry for the damage I caused on the town..." I muttered, remembering briefly the burning buildings, the holes in the ground and walls, that collapsed bridge.

"Sorry for the mess with that guild too. Sorry for the things with Master. And the other guild-members. Sorry for everything." I opened my eyes at that last statement, stared straight at the woman that was sitting there. Such pretty, long hair. Such a pretty color. I noticed Gray and Natsu that also stopped yelling in order to look at me.

"I know the rivalry between the two guilds. That strange person with the abilities of earth told me. You are.. enemies, of sorts. And the leader of Phantom. He wants to obliterate this guild. I gave him one on the nose for it, but it didn't break. Sorry about that too. He did one mistake, that Phantom man. After.." I stopped myself. Attempting to break his nose he hadn't exactly made the man happy with me.

"He fixed me up. Probably thought Father wanted to see me proper." as if Father would care. He could probably fix me up nicely himself if he found the need to do so.

"Who is he?" Erza asked again. She had asked me when I got back, but I hadn't answered. Hadn't wanted to.

"You might've heard of him... Not like I tried keeping it secret or anything... His name is Jude Heartfilia."

"Heartfilia. As in THE Heartfilia? Owner of Heartfilia Konzern Heartfilia?"

"I don't know what he owns. Never asked. He has a lot of money, enough to pay a guild to hunt me down and fetch me back. Not that I know WHY..." I replied, and got up, stretched my body. They had done a good job patching me up, my wounds had been nicely cleaned and pertly healed with some kind of ointment.

Sure, I still had a few broken bones, but it wasn't something I couldn't handle.

"So you're rich?" Gray said, stared at me. Rich? As in wealthy? Perhaps. There was a time of balls and frilly dresses. Not that I wished to venture into that particular part of the past. I didn't really want to venture too far into any part of my past.

"One way of putting it. I'm not..." the ground started shaking, and we all looked up.

* * *

We arrived outside the remnants of the guild, metal still sticking out in various directions, Only to gape at the sight awaiting us on the water. The phantom lord building, yes, the BUILDING, was moving on what seemed to be giant legs. I stood there, and then closed my eyes. Concentrate. Gather it all. Protect what is most important. I felt tears prickling up in my face, but ignored them.

* * *

He spoke of surrender. He spoke of the futility in the word. That nothing would stop him, and that they should just give up their comrade and get this business over with. Had he not heard of Fairy Tail before? They gave him a reply all in the guild knew to be the right one. The hell they would. In their midst, there she stood, the blonde, her eyes closed and her fists clenched. Tears flowed down her face. She was a Fairy Tail mage, as much as everyone else. Then emerged the cannon, and a voice told them that this would be the end of the town called Magnolia...

* * *

FLASHBACK

I ran. I ran because I knew I couldn't fight these people. Then the grown ups would be mad. The old woman at the cloth store. THe old man that worked at the bakery. And if they got mad, they might be the next to chase me.

_Once a human and a beast, gathered up and had a feast. From them there was born a child, a demon with its eyes so wild._

_Human eyes and human skin, it resembled not its kin. Blood it craved and blood it shed, until we painted its back red._

_Up the mountain road we went, all our guns and pitchforks spent. Marked the child of curses red, until its back its true name bled._

They held me down. They held me down, and they used a rusty knife to carve it upon my back, my true name. I had been so happy earlier that day. The children in the village had asked me to come play with them. They were older than me, which made it even more prestigious. I was a child. No more than five or six years old, the one that invited me may ten or twelve. Children. Innocent children as adults would call them. I Shrieked while they used the old weapon, probably a hand me down, not really that sharp anymore, which made it all that more painful. While they did it they sang that song. An old song, they called it, but they said it was mine now. I would be given my true name. The words might not fit in a childs mouth, some would say. I said it fitted nicely. Why, the children sang it quite often.

_Skin it flay it, mark it slay it, hang it hit it, we must kick it. Human heater, crier shrieker, bleeder bested, limits tested_

_Hang it up and slit its throat, let it hang like slaughtered goat. Blood will leave it nice and slow, like monsters butchered long ago_

_Farther farther up and down, chase the nasty monster down. Monsters murder monsters lie, we will make the monster die_

Then they found a rope, bound my hands and legs, started dragging me along to a tree where one of them climbed up, and I realized what they were about to do as their song progressed. My back ached, a feeling intensified when I got dragged along the forest floor. I kept screaming for them to stop. No one listened. No one ever listened. The song continued, passing their lips and following that same, simple melody. Some of them had blood on their faces, some of them had hands soaked in it. Of course they didn't react. This was a small village, most of them had been taught to hunt from a young age. They'd been taught to stay away from me too, the child of the mountain woman. The Dragon lady.

_Dragon lore she taught us well, beastly was the strength she held. But monster mother could not lie, the destiny is it must die_

_Farther farther up and down, shoot it dead or let it drown. Monsters murder, monsters lie, therefore monsters need to die_

One verse kept recurring. Monsters murders, monsters lie. Lies. I tried promising never to lie again, but they ignored me as they strung me up in the tree by my feet, making the blood rush to my head, making hard to think.

_Hang it up and slit its throat, let it hang like slaughtered goat. Blood will leave it nice and slow, like monsters butchered long ago_

_Farther farther up and down, chase the nasty monster down. Monsters murder monsters lie, we will make the monster die._

One of them stepped forward, held that same rusty knife they had used earlier, walking up to me. No. Don't. PLEASE. Let me.. go. He had brown eyes, the boy. Like me. Black hair, all curly and sort of short. I knew him to be the son of the village butcher, though I didn't know his name. I never was good with names. He wasn't their only child, the youngest boy of three. He had a younger sister, though, a cute thing with long, curly hair and dark, brown eyes. Large eyes, and always a smile. She had smiled at me too, didn't think I was a freak. She was young, so she didn't call me names. Not yet. But she would. With time, they all did. And they started singing the song of Beasts. Or like they said in my village, Lucys song.

Finally, after the blood rushed and sealed off the part of me that contained reasonable thoughts, I snapped. I snapped, and felt the heat surround me, engulfing the tree in seconds and making the children step back in terror. The rope was incinerated immediately, and I turned in the air, landed on my feet, roared in agony, the sound alone making the ground shake.

FLASHBACK END

* * *

The cannon was directed at the guild called Fairy Tail, and the town called Magnolia. It was the only place I had ever heard of other than the village. Fairy Tail was the only Magic Guild in the town. A place where mages could gather up and take on jobs in order to earn money. Fairy Tail was known for many things. Destructive tendencies and camaraderie high on that list. I opened my eyes to see Erza Scarlet don what I suspected to be one of her stronger armors, if not THE strongest. I saw the beam directed at her. At us. The guy pulling the strings had called this guild trash. Unsophisticated trash. They never threw rocks at me. They never called me a monster. They never tried to string me up in a tree in order to slit my throat and watch me bleed out. They never told me to die.

A roar penetrated the air, made it vibrate with the ground, bringing some of the mages fall to their knees while clutching their ears in an attempt to close the noise out. I saw Natsu turn around, stiffen when he saw my figure, right as the ground around me cracked when I started releasing the pressure built up within me. I saw his lips utter my name, though the vibration of my magic kept out all sounds before I charged, right before the beam of destruction was released from the cannon, heading for the scarlet mage. She put her shield up, a major magic circle appearing in front of her. Run.. faster. Faster. FASTER!

* * *

She was prepared for this. She would protect the guild in the place of Master, until he returned. It was her responsibility to do so. Titania stood firm, wearing her Rune Armour, ready for the assault that would ruin everything should she ever move. She had heard the roar, felt the shaking ground, but did not waver as she moved her shield in front of her, creating the best defense she could muster.

It all happened very fast. The beam was released. Titania steeled herself. Then, light as a feather, something touched her shoulder. It threw her enough off guard to turn her head, and she saw what she believed to be Lucy. It was her foot that touched her right before she passed, her eyes fixed on the beam. At least Erza thought so. Though it might somewhat resemble the girl, it almost was like a different person. Skin partly covered by red scales, her hands ending in terrifying claws. Her eyes black as night and her teeth, sharp and white, displayed in a terrifying sneer. Then she had passed, and light surrounded her as she disappeared into the beam that had enough strength to wipe out a town.

* * *

It is my destiny to die young. It is my destiny to die as a monster. Might as well go with a bang...

***THE END..? Do I sense a pattern? Why yes, it might just be. It is somewhat of a fitting ending though, isn't it? Doesn't HAVE to be, but IF it is, it fits. I even put in a lovely childhood memory for you, since I'm in a good mood today. Tell me what you think, and I'll ponder on whether or not to continue this one. If not, this will in fact be the first story I have EVER written till the end. So long!***


	13. Chapter 13

***I remain uncertain as to WHY I keep writing on this. It lacks a general plot in my eyes, but what can I do? This is a nice place to let my imagination loose, and I guess it ended up better than I expected to begin with. Not that I ever expected too much from this story. Well, there were a few that inclined a wish for me to post more chapters. You know who you are, and here I am.

I do not own Fairy Tail, not its characters or its storyline.***

My mother is Layla Clive, the toughest woman you would ever get to meet. My dad is Igneel, a dragon. Fierce, strong, brave. Stupid. Not that I ever met Papa, he has been off limits since the day off my birth. So I am the child of the beauty and the beast, an abomination that never should have come into existence, yet here I am. The Cursed Child.

I roared when I felt the transformation take hold of me, rippling off me in waves of magical power. It was almost crippling, the pain following this. My body was not really built to sustain this kind of energy, though my genes allowed me to survive it, at a cost, of course. I had already taken off when my foot lightly touched her shoulder, a short warning that allowed the strongest female in this guild to see the image of me before I headed into what might become my death. I hit the beam, felt the surge, breaking some of my already fractured ribs. Still, I prevailed, brought my flaming fist forward until it hit solid metal. There was a large sound, then it gave in, right in front of me, crackled and broke, packed into an unidentifiable metal chunk while the air made a sound like a whip due to the sheer force that ruined the cannon and kept it from ever being able to blast anything again. Upon impact I think most of the bones in my arm gave in, but the magic kept it from merely exploding into a bloody mess of human meat, kept keeping my body in check like it would. The next thing I knew, something metal rammed into my stomach, fractured more ribs, sending me crashing into some rubble in the castle.

"Something tells me daddy dearest didn't tell us everything about his lovely lost daughter..." a voice called out, and I saw a man appeared. Long black hair, his face covered in metal studs. He smelled like Dragon, so I understood what he had to be. Dragon Slayer, like Natsu.

"Like the fact that you aren't a Celestial mage at all." he added, and I charged. My fist hit air as he dodged me, hit me in the ribs again. Flaming wings appeared on my back, I coughed blood, but charged again, roared in pain and anger. He jumped up high, and I flew up using my wings, feeling my innards churn within, slowly starting to fail. Since I could actually control the bane of my flight, I should have the upper hand. He still hit me more often. Though my fists at the moment remained stronger, it helped little since I couldn't get a proper grasp of him. Only grazing him would not stop the Iron Dragon Slayer, and my strength was not infinite. Another hit, and I felt myself falling like an arrow, hitting the water and making it boil as I headed for the depths.

* * *

It didn't take them long to get over the shock of Lucy going on a rampage in front of them. The master of the guild still remained unharmed, sending shades to attack them. Erza Scarlet, Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster charged, soon followed by Elfman Strauss. The next roar to ripple the air seemed to be filled with agony, and the two that fought rose in the air, one with flaming wings keeping her airborn until a particularly strong hit sent her blasting into the water. Another spell was being cast, they needed to stop this before a magic of old would destroy Magnolia. When would this ever end?

Natsu Dragneel had his battle with another fire mage, a person he didn't really know the name of, his rage rising and making his flames almost uncontrollable even for him. His opponent, a manipulator of fire, even those that did not belong to him, stood no chance, and was soon sent literally flying. The Fire Dragon Slayer payed no heed to the cuts and grazed acquired as he moved directly to his next opponent, Iron Gajeel, that very recently remained vacant after sending Lucy into the water. This did, if nothing else, keep him from pursuing his old opponent any further.

Gray Fullbuster was in the meantime fully occupied fighting the Rain Woman named Juvia of the Deep, a very capable S-class mage with a body that consisted of water, making her virtually impossible to harm. With the strength to affect the weather itself it would remain a tough battle, a battle between boiling hot water and his freezing ice, making the clouds above darker as the fight proceeded. The weather kept changing between rain and hail, and for a while the opponent seemed to be having the upper hand. Not that the Ice mage would falter due to this, since he fought for much more than just himself. His guild was fighting with him, so he was determent to walk from this fight victorious.

Erza Scarlet took on the one of Element Four that controlled Air, also the one to be the leader of the four S-class mages, and by far the strongest. Her movements seemed like art, changing between armors in an instant, flying through the air and delivering blow after blow using her magnificant collection of swords and hitting every angle she could think of in order to find the weak spot of her enemy. Aria was no joke, his magic strong and invisible to make the task at hand even more difficult. It was he who had snuck behind Master Makarov and stripped him of his magical powers. It was HE who had driven Fairy Tail into desperation and forced them to retreat the last time the two strongest guilds in Fiore clashed. The rage of this knowledge gave Titania extra strength, making her faster. Stronger. Better. She would not give in. She would avenge her father figure. She would show the strength of the guild he so openly had mocked.

Elfman Strauss took on the man with the accent, a man controlling the element of earth. Though the opponent did not possess the brute strength the Fairy Tail mage had, he had the brain to make up for it, attacking mentally in order to weaken his opponent in order to strike. Images of a younger Strauss sibling, dead long ago, made an appearance, crippling the man that had lived through a lot in his life, including that girls funeral. Even so, his other sister, Mirajane Strauss, yelled encouragements. She too used to belong to the brass of her guild, a strong mage with ample magical abilities, lost with the life of Lisanna. Elfman still had one sibling, and he would keep fighting while he had a family to protect, that term expanding beyond the limit of blood and including the guild called Fairy Tail. He would not be beaten quickly, even if he had to utilize the magic within which he had kept hidden since THAT day.

They fought on, Dragon Slayer versus Dragon Slayer that flew above the construction, landing on the top of the building where Gray sat by the limp body of Juvia, his battle over and done with. In a hole in the castle Elfman could be seen, putting his thumbs up for his older sister, his battle also ended in victory. A limping Erza made it to his side, smiling at him, showing that she too had achieved what she had come for. The large construction that looked strangely like a robot complete with legs rather than the bug-like things (you know, 6 legs like a bug) it had had at its arrival (when did that happen? I'll leave that to the imagination I guess...) halted, the large circle it had been writing ceased to exist. Meanwhile, the guild kept fighting the Shades, but started cheering due to the apparent victory.

That was when the Shades started to merge to the laughter of its puppeteer. They all merged into a giant black ball, fists appearing from its core and starting to hit the already heavily damaged guild. The cheers turned to shrieks of horror, the mages resuming their battle that once more had turned into a desperate one. Not the guild. Not their home. Not now, when they were so close to victory. And what of Lucy? One individual stared out to the ocean, his orange hair sticking in every direction. That girl... In the middle of the battle no one had the time to think of her, and relied on her strength to survive. A survivor, that girl, water would hardly be the thing to off her. Hopefully.

A spot in the ocean started boiling, and Lucy Clive, or was it Heartfilia(?), rose slowly from the ocean, blood running from her black eyes and her mouth, her ribcage all but shattered and her broken arms lifted for battle. The water moved in a circle around her, merged with the fire, and then exploded upwards into a tsunami that moved towards the shore. No.. way. Loke took an involuntary step backwards before shouting the warning they needed, his guildmates, that started running when they saw what was coming towards them, a mass of water and fire that no doubt would lead destruction with it.

* * *

"Okay, come on, make this QUICK, or I will PERSONALLY stand for the punishment of whoever causes her death!" yelled the woman in her scary voice, her long blue hair flowing behind her as she rode the wave, tch-ing over the flames that kept merging with HER water. No one was allowed to let Lucy die now, for Aquarius would be the one to personally kill her when this nightmare was over. The wave hit the shore, moved towards that unattractive blob of black something, mainly steered by the raging fire that was set dead on protecting the guild. As it washed over the ugly thing it split up in shades again, and her brothers attacked. Cancer and Taurus. Pathetic little pricks, nothing like HER sweet and loving BOYFRIEND. Aquarius stopped up and looked at the shocked mage in front of her.

"Long time no see.. Loke." she paused a moment too long before she uttered his name. There was many things she knew of this man.

"What are you d..?"

"What do you THINK, dimwit. I am trying to avoid my masters death." she pointed at the girl that stood beside her, her magic power starting to deplete now. How could she remain alive with such a rampaged body, much less STAND on her own two feet?

"Lu..cy?"

"What's left of her. She should've summoned us BEFORE she lost so much.. everything. Blood, bones, don't want to think what her innards look like.."

"Gate of the.." Aquarius stopped her master with a hand over her mouth.

"Enough. They're already out." she said, her voice almost soft. Her having a soft voice was a very rare occurrence. The girl started coughing more blood, but smiled through bloodied teeth anyways, something that made the water bearer tsk again, not admitting to her rare show of kindness.

"It's over..." she muttered suddenly, and gone she was, her siblings with her, leaving an as good as dead girl behind, a girl who's magic power suddenly retreated back into her body, disappearing without a trace to whatever hidden place it usually was stored, and the girl collapsed forward, barely caught by the slightly older male. The moment after the sky was lit up by a magic circle that lit up everything, obliterating all shades, all darkness and that even healed the Fairy Tail members some. They all knew who the magic circle belonged to. Master Makarov had returned, and he had served justice in a true Fairy Tail fashion. Fairy Law. Thusly, the great battle of the guilds that shared the title as strongest in Fiore came to an end, leaving a single guild standing. Phantom Lord was no more, the main guild falling into the ocean, all the smaller fractions mysteriously beaten by an unknown enemy. Fairy Tail, the victor, was left with a ruin for a guild, and a lot of injured members. It didn't stop them from cheering, jumping about despite their exhaustion and in some cases broken limbs. Nothing would bring this guild to their knees while they stood together, and that they intended to do until the end of time itself.

* * *

"We did go slightly overboard, though," the Master uttered as he looked at the ruins of the guildhall, sighing heavily since he knew a lot of work lay ahead of them. He had been considering to expand the guild for some time now, though, and the demolition of the old guild had practically been done for him, so he guessed he had SOMETHING to thank Phantom Lord for. THIS time he would build a pool, for sure, so the female members of the guild could cool themselves down in their bikinis.. Yes. He would do that.

"Master, what do we do now?" asked Erza, stopping his impure fantasies from developing any further.

"We move forward!" he announced, and lifted his fist into the air to show off the sign of Fairy Tail brotherhood. They cheered with him, his children, the ones that hadn't given in to exhaustion and injuries and that now were being carried off to a temporary infirmary led by a very unhappy Porlyusca. Well... The Magic Council wouldn't be happy about this. Hostility between guilds wasn't technically legal, and outright WAR like this.. The man broke out crying at the mere thought of it, freaking out some of the people standing about. Indeed. The Council would be displeased, and Fairy Tail wasn't exactly on the good side of them as it was...

***Well, that might've been a surprise for some. Maybe not. I didn't plan to include Celestial Spirits in this story, but my mind works in mysterious ways. Hope you all liked it, and if not... Well, not like I can do much about it right now anyways. Too bad, I guess. Why did I continue this? No idea. Got bored and needed something to do. This always was my go to story when that occurred. Wasn't sure whether to release it either, since I kind of already decided to discontinue the story, but then I changed my mind. Temporarily. Congratulations.***


	14. Chapter 14

***I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. If I did.. Well, point is, I don't. End of story. Not this one, though, it's still going strong! I don't remember why I wrote that... Well, seeing how you chose to remain hidden, Lulu, I'll thank you for your review here. So thank you. Of course, I love all my reviewers, you've offered me loads of support so far, encouraging me to go on. But enough of me praising people, and time to go to the actual story!***

"I want you out of this house, NOW." Uttered a fairly annoyed Porlyusca, ushered Happy, Natsu and Gray out of her home where they had been visiting a still sleeping Lucy. Erza would've come too, but she had stayed back at the base of the guild where major construction had been set into motion in order to rebuild Fairy Tail as soon as possible. In the meantime the guildhall remained outside in the lovely weather, with the missionboard up and ready for all who wished to contribute with money by doing missions rather than staying at the site building the guild itself. Since Erza was the second in command after Master the choice remained pretty much like that, unless injuries made it impossible.

* * *

The healing mage sighed after slamming the door in the face of the young folk, wandered back to the circular room that worked as both bedroom and working room.

"Are they gone?" I mumbled, opened an eye to look at the old woman, her pink hair made up in a tight knot, only letting a part of her fringe free to hang loose and surround her face.

"They are. I find your recovery rate very remarkable, young lady, especially considering the sheer amount of fractured boned and ruptured organs. You should be dead, much less awake." she said it strictly, and I smiled while staring at the wooden roof. Indeed. I should be many things, dead ranking quite high on that list.

"You might be right." I chose to reply, coughed a bit due to my damaged lungs that were in the painful process of reinflating and repairing themselves. I would need food soon in order to keep my metabolism running high. The Phantom Lord Leader had fed me somewhat during my short stay, and that combined with the excellent patchwork of one of his healers had made it possible for me to go all out like that, though I now was rendered pretty much useless. It had been a week, and only now had my body mustered the strength to heal my second lung enough for it to be used. A week. I could still hardly walk. Doing what I did with already fractured bones was always a bad idea. The force alone could've been enough to break them, and I hadn't exactly just walked about doing nothing. My spirits had even made an appearance. Aquarius would murder me the next time I summoned her, of that I was certain, since I distinctly remembered her saying something about a date that day, and while I didn't really understand the significance I knew it meant a lot to her, and that she would become REALLY cranky every time I interrupted one of them.

"Mind telling my why you don't want to see your friends? Not that I mind the silence, but I would've thought you like company just like the rest of the Fairy Tail brats..." Porlyusca said and sat down by her working station, started pulverizing some herbs in a pestle and mortar, no doubt for some new kind of remedy. Or something. Might even be a poison for all I knew, since I was utterly unfamiliar with this woman's hobbies.

"I'm not too familiar with noise. Usually after adventures like that, I would remain alone for a while. Sometimes days. Sometimes weeks. Not even my spirits would visit..." I replied softly. I didn't hate noise. Not really. It was merely.. unfamiliar.

"Spirits?" the older woman questioned. I guessed she might require an elaboration.

"Yeah... Something about it draining away my magical power and slowing my healing rate." I elaborated. I didn't know too much about it, but knew it required some magic power summoning spirits. Therefore it made sense to keep them from popping out while my body needed the magical power to fix itself.

"You have spirits?" quite persistent, Porlyusca. And what kind of question was that, anyways?

"Of course I do. Wouldn't be much of a Celestial Mage without them..." I mumbled and closed my eyes again. Sleepy. So sleepy. I hoped no one perished in this fight. As far as I knew, I had been the lucky one to destroy my body the most, but that was alright. Happened more often than I'd care to mention. The fun part of having very bad defense skills. Sure, I could stop a fairly strong hit with my hand. That was the extent of it, however. I was not too good at dodging while fighting, and running was no fun.

"Have fun with your herbs, Porlyusca. I think I will sleep some more..." my voice became sluggish at the end of the sentence, and I only made out fractions of a disgruntled reply before sleep caught hold of me again.

A few more days now, and it would be time.

* * *

*I am going home. LC*

I left the note on the bed, stripped off the dress I had worn so far and replaced it with my shorts, still containing my collection of keys. I didn't have many, only.. hm.. Lyra, Cancer, Taurus, Aquarius, Horologium, Crux, and that strange one I had picked up last time I got lost on my way to Magnolia. I hadn't formed a contract with him yet, the Canis Minor, Nicola. I should do that soon... That would make six, and a half. Soon to be seven. Not too bad, actually. The bandages should be enough to keep me decent if I wore my shorts only, but I donned a green singlet just to be sure. Should be okay. Father didn't like me dressed too sparsely anyways. Time to visit THAT man and tell him to back off my guild. My guild. The thought alone made me smile. They accepted me, fought for me and even cared for me when I got hurt. This sour woman I currently stayed with ASSUMED us to be friends. Such a weird assumption, but it made me feel all warm and giddy on the inside. Friends. My friends. Me having friends.

I left the house, a strange place made out of a hollowed tree that seemed to be alive still. This Porlyusca was quite the healer, even with her obvious distaste for company. She had a weak spot for Master, it would seem. Perhaps a weak spot for everyone belonging in Fairy Tail in general. She had a good heart, I could tell as much, though she frightened me sometimes. Though she looked kind of frail, it was something about those steely eyes that spoke of hidden power, and her VOICE. She DID have quite a voice on her when she got annoyed.

"It would seem you will get your way after all, Father. Your so called lost daughter is coming home for a visit..." I muttered, dragged a hand through my hair. I might want to look for a river on my way there, my hair was REALLY greasy, and I needed to wash my wounds. No deep rivers though, if I fell in my lungs wouldn't take it too well, being only barely healed as of yet. I started walking, moving in between the trees, careful not to leave any signs behind alerting possible pursuers of the direction I was heading. A skilled huntsman might be able to follow, but I could hide my tracks nicely if I had to. Father was a person I feared more than most things, but this clearly needed to be done. He had sent an entire guild after me, starting a very little appreciated war. The Guild had been destroyed completely, and now needed to be rebuilt. Sure, Master had planned to improve the building for some time now. I learned as much when Gray talked to what he assumed to be my sleeping body. Still. Father had gone over the line.

* * *

The sun was well up above, shining down and making everything seem prettier. No clouds could be detected, birds chirped happily, adults moved about with their children, smiling and talking about ice cream, trips in the park or perhaps toys. Children liked toys, after all. A couple were discussing what to have for dinner tonight, torn between whether or not to have dessert today, the woman coming with most arguments both for and against it. It would be unhealthy, but it was good. Not that they did it everyday, but there was a reason for that. Their teeth would surely not benefit from it, but it wasn't like they were going to do it EVERY day. But then her best friend HAD told her that her hips had grown lately. Better not, then. Her boyfriend remained silent during the monologue of his loved one, probably uncertain of what to say. I wondered if the facade would remain when the two of them were alone. I wondered if they all wore masks, pretending to be things they weren't.

I stood in the middle of the street, looking up at the castle like construction standing there in the distance, seemingly mocking me, daring me to come closer. I didn't want to come closer, though. I didn't WANT to talk to the person living there. Living in a place like that, I would already place him in the category referred to as assholes. Not that I knew who lived there. Father certainly didn't. Once more I dragged a hand through my hair, freshly washed and everything. I had even used soap! Soap I got from Cancer, no less, as he fixed my hair. Not that it did me much good now. I glared the nice building on the top of a hill, looking down on the town. It WAS mocking me, surely. I sighed.

"I am utterly lost..." I muttered to myself where I stood. It was a nice town. Green grass, chirping birds, happy families. I didn't know where I was, though. The *home* I had referred to in the note it was not. In hindsight, walking off into the woods hadn't been the best of ideas.

* * *

"Lucy?" I was sitting on a bench when I heard someone calling my name. Had they found me already? I turned, only to see a slightly green Natsu coming staggering towards me. I recognized that look everywhere. He had been on a train again, hadn't he? But how would he know that I would be here? Even I didn't know that. I didn't even know where HERE was.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. So, I wasn't caught due to an epic manhunt, then.

"I'm lost," I replied then. Telling him as much didn't hurt, and it was the honest truth. He laughed and stood before me, practically beaming.

"It's REALLY good you're here, actually. I'm on a job, and I could use your help!" he seemed eager, his motion sickness all but forgotten. That kid really DID recover quickly. And he found nothing strange in me being here, in the middle of.. where was I? Still didn't know.

"Aye!" Happy chimed in. The two of them made me smile. Not like I had anything better to do right now anyways. I decided mentally to take the train the rest of the way to Father. A train station should be situated near his place, after all. And trains would pass by Fathers place.

"Okay.. What is this job about?" I asked, hoped for the mission to be over quickly so I could continue on my merry way.

"We're supposed to steal this book from that mansion on the hill, and destroy it. I was on my way to see the clients now. Want to join in? I'll give you a third of the reward!"

"Sure. I could do with some money," I got up and followed Natsu to the place where the clients would be waiting. I could need some money for the train, for starters. This mission seemed easy enough. Easy money. I liked the sound of that.

***And I think we all can imagine what mission this is. At least I hope people can... I know, I put it out of order. Who cares, I like it so I'll include it here in order to make it more interesting. Of course, things are different with this alternate Lucy,so things might develop differently too. I am awesome, and proud of it. I will also say it again, my ego will be alright eventually. There are a lot of awesome people out there. I just happens to be one of them!***


	15. Chapter 15

***I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. Things are getting out of hand. Not that it matters much, I'm having a good time writing this stuff, so no worries there, right? Death threats, always fun. Not that I got one this time, more of a warning some people might be displeased should I choose to end the story just off the bat. And constructive criticism. I do attempt to lay off battle scenes since too much happens in too short a time span for my brain to get it all down. I am thusly not very good at writing battle scenes.***

I stood in front of my fellow Fairy Tail mage, behind some bushes and a tree, the gate going into Evarloo mansion. At the moment I was wearing some kind of frilly, very revealing Maids Outfit. Why?

"Why am I wearing this?" I conveyed my thoughts to the guy that just went out and announced me to be his partner. As in a person he and Happy would be going on missions with. I didn't know such an agreement had to be made, but if the boy wanted to be partners on this mission, then sure. But why the Maids Outfit?

"The Duke of Evarloo is seeking a new maid to hire. Thought it would be fun to dress up and sneak in. I thought about just burning the place down, but Master asked me to keep a low profile now since the Magic Council is all over us after the Phantom Lord incident." he explained. So, basically, I had to pretend to be a maid that wanted to be hired by this Duke. Had Natsu intended to use this himself? I sent him a strange glance, but he was busy looking for any sign of life coming from the gate.

"So, I need to be cute and hirable. Got it." I emerged from the bushes, straightened my too short skirt and looked between the bars of the gate.

"Hello? I heard you're hiring a new maid. I came to apply... Hello?" I used my nice voice, mimicking that of some girl talking to her boyfriend in the village. The ground started shaking. What now? Up from the ground he emerged, a fat man an his four..maids. Very STRANGE maids. Firstly I wasn't quite sure whether or not some of them were in fact males. They might be. Not that it mattered. I smiled innocently at the man, repeated my line. I had heard that he was in the market for a new maid, and I wished to apply.

"Who would like to hire an UGLY maid such as yourself! Go home, UGLY!" he replied me.

"Yes, go home, UGLY!" the maids repeated before they all disappeared back into the hole. I blinked. Once. Twice. Then I went back into the forest where my current partner stood waiting.

"I don't think they liked me..." I stated simply. The boy smiled a smile that suggested he knew it would fail all along, and his fist flamed up.

"Plan B it is, then!" he announced, and I had an idea what the B stood for.

"Didn't you say you had to keep a low profile because of the whole Council thing?"

"Yeah, but it can't be helped. The first plan didn't work, so.."

"Well I got a plan..." I announced, cutting him off since I saw him starting to move towards the mansion while he excused himself with that weird excuse. He looked at me with puppydog eyes.

"It involves Ninjas." I baited. He was hooked right away. Even I found the boy to be easily figured out at times. Then again, I got my idea from a relative that had the same childish demeanor. Ninjas. Usually a safe go.

* * *

There is a certain time in your life when you have to admit defeat, and just acknowledge the fact that the idea that seemed so plausible earlier is utter shit. Today was just not my day.

Firstly, I had been running with an injured body that kept healing itself throughout the night, only to admit defeat when I got utterly lost and ended up in some weird village. Not only that, but I ended up meeting the ONE person I would rather avoid when running away from the guild to meet up with Father. Then I got dressed up in some weird clothing, only to be declared ugly by a man that found it perfectly normal to move about by digging tunnels. Then there was the game of ninjas. Ninjas were supposed to be silent warriors moving without a sound in the shadows. The warrior part and the moving part would be the only thing a ninja and Natsu had in common. He was strong, and he was righteous, I knew that much. Silent.. not in a million years.

Which was why we made it all the way through the first door before being detected by some mercenaries that spoke in tongues and kept talking about their mother. Which was okay in itself, I talked about Mama all the time, but they also started insinuating that Mages remained helpless against their might due to some extra hours of physical training. I decided to leave Natsu there, since he alone would manage the tow of them while I ran off in search of the book we had been requested to destroy, a huge reward waiting for us should we succeed. Happy decided to follow me for some odd reason, which I found strange since I hadn't exactly been kind to him the last time the two of us had been alone. Natsu HAD declared that he alone would be enough to handle the two mages downstairs though, so I guess the cat had little else so to.

Which brought me back to the time after Happy somehow came over the book by pure chance as we searched the library, then to be nearly crushed by one of the maids, a huge ogre of a woman with stubby, pink hair set up in pigtails that the moment after started chasing after me when Happy tossed the book over. That is, until the structure beneath me gave in and I found myself screaming as I fell downwards towards the gods knew where, the odd fellow laughing while following me into the abbyssal labyrinth that went all the way down to the sewers where he started spouting about some secret involving gold and written stuff.

* * *

One exploded mansion and a rescue mission later...

I handed the client his book, still whole, smiled at the client. Oh, he wanted it destroyed. I couldn't care less, my gut had just told me to hand the darn thing over rather than just torch the sucker on my way through the tunnels running from the man that kept talking about some secret. When I handed the book to the man that had hired us, the secret came into daylight. The book, Daybreak, wasn't named that at all, and was a very long letter to our client, the authors son as it turned out.

Another revelation, our clients were far from wealthy. Natsu had the decency to declare our mission void since we didn't do what it told us too, and before I knew it we were heading for the train station. He had wanted to walk, and I could secretly stand for the absolute possibility of doing so. I managed to change his mind though, albeit reluctantly, and the train soon took off, heading for Magnolia.

"I need to go to the restroom," I declared, got up while smiling at the drowsy cat. His partner had been knocked out cold by me earlier. Not that I liked hurting him, but he had some decent instincts on him. I entered the restroom, opened the window there, looked back towards the door. Now or never. A train heading the opposite direction was heading towards this one, and I needed to be on it order to make it home before nightfall.

"Here goes nothing!" I hauled myself out of the window when the other train started passing. I would pass briefly the window where the two were sitting, but hopefully they would notice nothing.

* * *

I managed to get off the train I had been clinging to the top of for a good while, and looked about. This looked remotely correct, though I hadn't been here for what.. years now? I yawned loudly, stretched my stiff limbs since there would be none of that once I entered the property. Not very ladylike, after all. And I only got lost like.. once on my way here. Quite the miracle, that in itself. Well, there was no point in loitering about.

The small village that lay next to the train station knew my face well, if their distorted grimaces were anything to go by. The whispering. The occasional rock that came flying from the shadows. Monster. Abomination. Cursed Child. Brat. Princess. The list of names went on. I had nearly forgotten about this. It was indeed a southern tradition to give me names. I managed to dodge most of the rocks. They didn't put much power into throwing them either. Most likely children. Home sweet home.

I soon left the remnants of the town behind, endless fields awaiting me until I would arrive at the mansion, only surrounded by the housing where the family of my servants would be accommodated. Upon my arrival they would probably greet me with tears in their eyes, then drag me off to give me some kind of frilly dress before I got summoned to HIS office. Frilly dresses. Ugh. Too hard to run in those.

* * *

I made my way through the empty halls of HIS castle. The large windows showed off the magnificent view, complete with green fields and mountains rising up in the distance. It felt lonely here, and cold. Not a home where some happy family would reside. There were reasons why I had left all those years ago with Mama. Currently I wore a white and pink frilly dress, a tad tight around my body since it wasn't really been sown for me. My hair was made up in a nice looking bun, only letting the fringe loose, framing my face. I hesitated outside the door, swallowed hard and mentally forced my hand to stop shaking. Then I knocked. It would be best to make this over and done with.

"Come in." that same strict voice. A man that had made me call him Father, though he was nothing of the sorts. My dad was Igneel, not this being that once had claimed to love my Mother more than anything. I walked into the room, all but empty of furniture, but with shelves containing books from floor to roof. A blonde man made himself over to me from his desk that was placed at the other end of the room. His steps hit the floor harshly, and he stopped right in front of me. Raised his hand. The sound of him slapping my face hard resounded in the room. I didn't move, just looked at him while my indifferent smile spread across my face.

"Long time no see, Father," I said politely.

"It would seem you came to your senses, Lu.."

"Not like you to dirty your hands like that. What, fresh out of guilds to hire?" I interrupted him. Damn, he would be mad because of this, but I needed him mad. I WANTED him mad. I'd handle the consequences somehow. The look on his face told me I was succeeding. Great...

* * *

Happy had seen her pass by the window of the wagon, holding on to a train going in the opposite direction, something he had informed Natsu off when he became conscious. He hadn't thought much of it until the train finally stopped at the Station in Magnolia, and Gray and Erza stood there staring at him as he crawled off the train. Erza held a note up, a note written in surprisingly neat letters, announcing that Lucy was heading home. Natsu took it that this home wasn't the cabin, and only one solution presented itself. Jude Heartfilia.

He remembered how she had looked when he found her sitting on that bench, staring ahead with that aloof expression, completely lost in her thoughts. She had jumped when he called her name, and he soon found out what she was doing there. Lost. Her sense of direction amazed him sometimes. When he offered her to join up as partner on the mission he was on she smiled and said yes. Then returned the aloof expression as she followed him towards the client. She was thinking about something. She'd seemed a lot less tense though, since the whole episode where she thought she'd been tossed out of the guild. She accepted the fact that she was wanted in the guild. A part of the family.

There was a village right by the trainstation, a small place with a very cozy and filled with very friendly villagers that seemed thrilled that they got visitors coming by. At least until they found out why they were there.

"Better not follow that Cursed Child. She only brings trouble with her."

"You're better off without her, trust me."

"You're not her friends. That creature has no friends."

"Monster."

"Abomination."

"Freak."

After they had assured the villagers that they indeed wanted to pursue the girl that apparently had many names around these parts, they pointed out of the village and retreated from them. The friendliness ceased, and the Fairy Tail mages only got glares instead.

He was running, running with his fellow guildmates, his speed increasing when he saw her huddled form. Was she kneeling in front what seemed to be.. a grave? They yelled her name, and she jumped, turned to face them. When Erza, Natsu, Happy and Gray made it over to her they saw what she was indeed doing. Weeding. She was weeding a grave. In front of a very big mansion.

"I thought you said you wanted to stay!" Natsu yelled accusingly, and the blonde blinked.

"I did. I still needed to talk to Father regarding some of the things he did. Sending a guild to fetch me was a bit over the top."

"Aren't you terrified of him?"

"Yes. I thought I was going to die..." she shivered before turning back to the flowerbed, looking at her work.

* * *

"Hm, I think that ought to do it. Meet Faith, my sister. Or.. half sister, I guess. She's Fathers real daughter." I smiled and pointed at the grave.

"Little devil, she was. Used to run around and causing havoc in this place, making Father furious and Mama would laugh so hard every time he made that face. He would laugh too, back then. She was sick, when... I didn't know she died. Should've known, though. She was weak, even then. She might be able to kick through a wall, but she often got fevers and was bedridden..." it had been a while since i had been here, and the date told me it also had been a while since she was put into the ground. Pure, innocent Faith. I touched the grave one last time, then turned, started walking from the place I had left so long ago. When I didn't sense them following I stopped, looked at them.

"You coming? I'm not going in the wrong direction, am I?" I could've sworn this was the right way. I was the direction I came from, wasn't it? I stared at the mansion. That was the angle I had seen it in when I arrived. My brows furrowed. This SHOULD be the right direction.

"You mean you didn't leave the guild?"

"Well, I did, and now I'm returning to the guild. Aren't you?"

"So you didn't come here to..." Gray let that one hang there.

"Do what? I told Father to back off, which wasn't very fun, by the way, and now I'm going back to Magnolia."

"Then.." Erza didn't continue either, but a smile grew on the face on Natsu as he practically jumped me into a tight hug.

"Southerners sure are strange. We should hurry up though, the sun will be setting soon, and when it sets the villagers start using their rifles." I pried the boy off of me and started walking.

"They seemed a bit off, the villagers." Erza commented.

"Did they throw rocks at you?" I hoped they didn't, but one could never know.

"No... They do that?" Gray asked.

"Sometimes." I replied nonchalantly.

"Why?"

"They think I'm a vampire." I smiled at them to show my slightly sharper than normal canine teeth.

"Oh..." we continued walking in silence, except from Happy that started talking about fish and how much he would love to have some. I remembered wanting fried fish too. That'd be nice. So Faith was dead. Kind of sad really. Not that I would cry, crying for the dead was a strange thing to do. Perhaps when I got some time alone. I had managed to find my tears again now, after all. Who knew what would happen next?

***And again, another ending. Of a chapter, I mean, not the story. I am having more fun writing this than I should.***


	16. Chapter 16

***I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. I write too much.***

I was sitting on the floor of the guild, eating fish from a plate. Nice, fried fish, oh how I had craved this for a long time. Why was I sitting on the floor? Didn't know, just felt like it. During my time in the North tables hadn't really been a usual thing either. The South had more of those, and right now I would like to forget the things Father had taught me back in the days. During the Phantom Lord incident I almost died, but my meeting with Father still scared me many times more. I had thought my last hour had been then and there, but somehow I made it out alive. Heck, I even got myself an escort back to the guild. Now I only needed a few days with things that did NOT remind me of the man and I would be fine. Tables was on the list of such things.

This was break-time, of course, the guild was far from finished. With my strength I was a good asset, though my skills when it came to anything more specific than carrying stuff around were limited. I had already broken a few walls to prove it when I got the option of taking a break. Which wasn't an option, by the way, since Erza was the one to suggest it. More like an order.

"What's up, Lucy?" I jumped from my spot on the floor, which also happened to be in the middle of the open bar, surrounded by workers and guests that went on with their daily ways, fighting, drinking and discussing jobs, girls or whatever they usually did. The one to address me was a person I had seen before, a guildmember, but I'd never spoken to him before. A playboy he was called, whatever that was, with wild orange hair and always wearing shades. He had his green jacket on, and usually held a posture of someone that took the world on without much care. I wondered briefly what his secret was.

"Nothing much. I'm no good with tables, is all. I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are..." technically speaking I DID know, he'd always been there, in the fringes, trying to approach me but usually being held up by something. Other girls, fighting males. Sometimes I left or got dragged off before he got to me as well.

"Loke. The name's Loke." he said, his voice sounding.. strange. Soothing, kind of. Why was that?

"Like the god?" I asked, reminiscing the bedtime storied Mama told me on her good nights. Tales of gods, and dragons and heroes of old.

"What?"

"Well, not really a god, more like an immortal trickster. Mama told me stories when I was younger. I'm northern, after all." did trickster and playboy resemble each other, may hap? Loke had been a charmer too, as well liked as he was resented due to his many misadventures and practical jokes played on fellow immortals, and sometimes humans. I'd always liked his stories, because he too was an outcast that eventually was alienated by his fellow gods because he was different.

"Ah.. yeah, like the god, then." he replied, his voice telling me I had caught him off guard. Perhaps did he not know the tales surrounding his name.

"Want some fish, Loke?" I held up a plate with one of the untouched pieces, since I doubted the guy would want the half eaten piece I currently was holding in my other hand. Fish was good stuff. Usually considered a food for cats, but by me it was considered food for gods. Who didn't like fried fish?

"Are you a celestial mage?" he asked instead, looked at the fish as if he wanted it, but already decided against taking it. I nodded, put the plate back in my lap.

"Aquarius claims so, yes, and her brothers Cancer and Tauros agrees. I prefer calling myself a Fire mage, though. I don't like sending for them when I'm battling,"

"And why is that?" he asked, and I smiled, finished the rest of my food, got up on my feet while staring at him intently, something that made the boy take a few steps backwards. Was he scared of me?

"That's a stupid question, Loke the trickster. What if they got hurt? Friends don't let friends get hurt." I laughed at his stunned expression. Laughing. It made me feel weird, but in a good way.

"You're strange." I continued, and with that I left him standing where he was, slightly cowering from me as if I was some kind of.. monster.

"You regard your spirits as friends?" he yelled after me, and I halted, turned to face him.

"Their words, not mine. I don't have friends. At least I didn't use to..." I added the last part as an afterthought. Erza hadn't given me much choice regarding that matter when I attempted to explain to her that me and friends didn't go well together. When my explanation didn't suffice as a legit explanation she stated that yes, I was her friend, and I also had a friend in every Fairy Tail member. Her skills with her large collection of sharp objects kept me from protesting, so now I had a lot of friends on my hands.

"Hey! Let's go to the bath-house!" an all to familiar voice called out before I found myself slung to the ground by the force of impact when Natsu jumped me. I barely saw the trickster leave before I turned my attention to my assailant.

"There are a lot of rivers in the forest. Why visit a house dedicated to bathing?" and besides, Natsu already had a bath-room in his house.

"Haven't you ever been to a bath-house before? Or a hot spring?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I've been to a hot spring before, sure, but there were no houses nearby, and I had to leave pretty early becauser of.."

"Then let's go!" declared Natsu without listening to a word I said, started dragging me along. Why did I get a feeling that he too had been temporarily exiled from constructing? Was he the cause to the fire I thought I smelled coming from the construction site?

"You set something on fire, didn't you."

"Maybe... Now let's go before Erza finds me!" he continued dragging me when suddenly, a sword appeared in front of us, nearly cutting Natsus throat thus making him freeze midrun, looking at Erza while sweat started to appear on his forehead. Speak of Erza and Erza shall appear. Seemed to be that way anyways.

"Where do you think you two are going?" she asked softly, in a voice that might be either kind or warning about impending pain.

"Bath-house?" he tried, very careful and with hope in his voice. Silence. The sword remained in place.

"Seems like a good idea." she said then, surprising the both of us and finally removing the sharp weapon. I used the momentum to free myself from his grip.

"I have something I need to check first." I declared.

"What?" Natsu asked, his pout threatening to make an appearance.

"Just something. At the graveyard."

"Come on, the bath-house is fun." he tried. Fun, huh.

"It's warm though, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yeah.. why?" Gray asked, mysteriously just there.

"I prefer cold water."

"You're a fire mage that prefers COLD water?" Gray didn't seem to believe in my words. Understandable.

"Sometimes." I answered. Right now I did, if nothing else, mainly due to some.. circumstances.

* * *

"What..?" I heard Loke stop somewhere behind me, didn't turn while I kept tending to the grave in front of me. A lone grave situated in front of a waterfall that continued almost infinitely. I should know, I fell from it earlier. Thankfully the water at the bottom was deep, so I suffered little damage.

"I got lost a while back, you know, and came across this place."

"Had your smell all over it, so I reckon you knew the person buried here. Was she human?" I turned around to look at the boy that stood there, clearly sleep deprived and possibly upset about me being here. Some people disliked people being close to the graves of people they found dear. I already knew there was a *she* in his past, and figured this had to be her.

"Because you aren't." I smiled at his stunned expression.

"Yeah yeah... Monster. Abomination. People get kind of itchy when my eyes turn black. My body temperature is probably just around.. well.. a lot right now too. In times like these I can understand it when people say I'm not human, though really, I am. I'm just human plus something else."

"What are you doing here?" he asked, finished his unspoken question from earlier.

"Good. You found your words, Leo. It is a nice grave this, even though it doesn't have the old letters written on it. Did you know? I can't read. Not these kinds of letters. Since I heard someone talk about this killer on a mission flier I decided to take it back then, but I can't... Only one thing. No, not my name. Fairy Tail. Only thing Uncle managed to pry into my thick skull, as he called it. I'm not very smart after all. Get lost a lot for starters. You too, it would seem."

"You know who I am?" he seemed surprised, but not overly shocked. He was too tired to truly be shocked. Poor boy.

"Aquarius didn't work too hard keeping that secret. After attempting to drown me, twice, after my stunt with Phantom Lord she told me. Not in clear words, of course, but I already knew some things from her occasional drunken tales when she broke up with her boyfriend. You're quite far from your home. How long have you stayed here without a contractor?"

"Three years." he replied.

"Three.. THREE YEARS? Wow. That is. Remarkable. Got to hurt like.. a lot." I got up from my squatting position, slowly. With my body going all freaky on me my muscles were complaining a lot, even after being healed up all nice and proper. Like running a marathon, and then perhaps having a building dropped on me.

"I AM a Celestial Mage, you know. It's my responsibility to help out when I can. Sure, my sense of direction is VERY bad, but leading you back to the stars. Not too hard doing that."

"I don't deserve salvation."

"Not your call, is it?"

"It's MY life."

"And it's MY friend." I was slowly approaching the guy calling himself Loke. Leo truly had been a trickster, even keeping his identity well hidden.

"Thought you didn't have friends. Besides, you don't even know what I did."

"Erza didn't exactly give me a choice regarding the friend thing, and even before that you're practically family. So, where's your key?" I put an arm on his shoulder, making him grimace.

"You're burning up."

"I know, now give me your key. You don't need to make a contract with me, I don't care about contracts, but I can send you back so you can be all better."

"I'm exiled, Lucy. There is no going back."

"Fine, so you want it done the hard way, eh? Great. I need to get this one out of the system anyways." I was referring to my little problem regarding all the body temperature and my eyes. The Fever usually did pass after a few days, perhaps a good week if I was unlucky. In the meantime I would have to stay away from dry wood and general hot things. I did have a theory that I might be able to burn the excessive power off temporarily by using a different magic. Like Ice magic or Celestial magic. Just a theory, of course. It might also just empty my batteries and send me into a coma. Or death. Death was always an option.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm opening your gate." might as well test this one out right away.

"That's impossible." he tried changing my mind. Wimpy try.

"I guess we'll find out." I replied, my smile kind of uncertain as a coughed up what might or might not be coal from undigested fish from earlier. I held back a groan. It was such a waste having such wonderful food go to waste like that.

"You'll DIE!"

"I AM THE GATEKEEPER TO THE CELESTIAL WORLD.."

"No, don't.." he took a step towards me only to stop when I started glowing.

"GATE OF THE LION, LEO, I OPEN THEE!"

* * *

The sky was pretty, with its churning clouds and falling rain, wiping away my aches and pains for the moment. More like numbing them away, sure, but point was they disappeared. Wait. Why was is dark? When did THAT happen? How long was I asleep? Oh well...

Leo the lion. Another link to Fairy Tail. Another being that led me towards this place. How strange was that? At least it ridded me of the tiny overdose I suffered from after unleashing too much fire. It would be some time until I could use that little trick again, but it would be for the best. For now.. I was Lucy Clive, the Celestial mage. A very tired and cold Celestial mage with some sleeping and eating to catch up on, but also a girl that had accomplished the intended goal, with just a minor detail I hadn't accounted for. Yes, I got another Contract on my hand.

"Lucy!"

"What is she DOING there?"

"Oi! You alright?" they came running while I lay on my back, my eyes closed and my face caressed by the falling water from far above. I opened my eyes to that, sat up while yawning loudly.

"Fine. Just tired. Weren't you guys heading for this bathing place?"

"That was hours ago."

"Have you seen Loke?"

"He just upped and left a few hours ago."

"We've been looking everywhere!"

"Hold on. Calm down. I just woke up, my brain doesn't work too good yet." I held up a hand, yawned again. Sure, I could wake up pretty fast on my own, but when falling asleep in the rain, outside, most of my magic depleted, I needed a moment to get what they were saying.

"Okay. I went for a walk. Got lost. Went for a swim. fell down some waterfall, then went here to pay my respect to this grave. Then Loke showed up looking kind of tired, then.."

"He was here?"

"Where is he now?"

"Calm down, I'm getting there. Uhm.. he needed some help with some things, and I helped him out. Then I fell asleep. Then you came." more like fell to the ground unconscious before my head hit grass, but that was just a minor detail. By the lack of ill response when I looked at them combined with the feeling of my cold skin I figured my theory checked out.

"So where IS he?" demanded Erza, and I looked at her.

"He's in the Spirit realm, of course. Where else?"

"WHAT?!"

"You mean he's dead?"

"No. He's a Celestial Spirit. The Spirit realm is like home for him. He'll be back, after some rest." Like really. They knew this, right? With a groan I got up on my feet, managed to somehow unclench my hand that held a shiny, golden key with the insignia of the Zodiac spirit Leo. Also known as Loke.

"Look, here's his key and everything."

* * *

Some brief explanations later, and I started following Natsu back to his home. The darkness made it sort of hard to see things, but we both had somewhat heightened senses, so we made due.

"You sure this is the right way?" I asked. He chuckled.

"Surer than you are." he replied, jumped over some ditch, me following his lead and jumping it too. I slipped unexpectedly due to the wet ground, but Natsu turned around in a flash, grabbed my hand and yanked me towards him so I avoided going into that pitch black hole.

"That doesn't mean much." I said, letting go of his hand as he started walking again. I heard Happy giggling above us, muttering something I didn't quite catch, other than a distinct rolling off his tongue.

"True. Didn't you live in a forest?"

"Yes. What's your point?" I said it while thinking about the odd question. Did he have a point to this?

"Well, how did you survive with your sense of direction?" he asked further. Good question. I asked myself about that frequently. There had been plenty of sticky situations and interesting adventures into areas I shouldn't have ventured into.

"Mama has a nice sense of direction, so she usually found me if I disappeared for too long. And besides, in the end it wasn't like I had a specific place I had to return too. Usually came over the village eventually when I wandered about enough." especially since the main river passed by the place. Most rivers ended up in that river, though some of them took an underground route so I couldn't follow them by feet. The old man that was married to the woman that owned the cloth store usually sat by the riverside and would fish me up if I lost consciousness.

* * *

Finally we arrived at his house, home sweet home with a nice rancid smell and the fireplace soon burning nice and hot. I was sitting right in front of it when Natsu got out of the bathroom, smelling nice and clean.

"You alright, Lucy?"

"Sure, a bit cold is all." I replied and turned to him. He lifted a brow at me but said nothing else as he headed to the kitchen area only wearing a towel around his waist. He had grown used to my presence pretty early on and now acted as if I had lived there always.

"That food isn't edible anymore." I said as he smelled the pan on the stove. It was a week old, if not older. I could smell the smell of food poisoning all the way to my sitting spot.

"How do you know before you've tried?"

"You know North from South yet your nose doesn't pick up on the rotting food? Okay, you know what? I'll make a meal." I got up, headed to the kitchen area and removed the food from his sight, tossed it in the trash before he could think of eating it.

"What kind of food do we have here?"

"We have fish!" Happy said and held a fish up to me. When did he get back?

"Fair enough. Give 'em and I'll cook something up..." during this whole time I hadn't cooked a single meal. While I found my cooking skills limited it couldn't be much worse than this guy. Sure, he could cook something up, but since he remained pretty omnivorous he didn't necessary care what he put in the pan in the first place, plus the fact that Mira would feed him decent meals so he didn't actually HAVE to cook too much for himself.

* * *

"I didn't know you could cook." Natsu praised in between bites, happily devouring the food I had prepared. Wow. I'd fried fish. That was my skill. The frying pan had added the extra flavor, of that I was certain.

"Mama goes on hunting trips all the time, and the nice old man couldn't always feed me."

"Nice old man?"

"From the village, it isn't important. Like you said, I get lost a lot, and frying food isn't too hard." and with that I curled up next to the guy while he ate, sitting in the sofa, and allowed myself to drift off.

* * *

"Hey, Happy. You get it?" the boy asked his cat partner, and the blue feline smiled, held up the paper in question while his eyes sparkled with mischief. The grin that lit up the face of the Dragon Slayer was nothing short of brilliant. He was about to share the good news with his other partner when he realized she was long since lost in the dreamworld, only leaning on him since he had technically been eating the meal in her bed. He'd tell her in the morrow. In her sleeping state she snuggled up closer, muttering something utterly incoherent and then lay still again, her breath even and relaxed.

"She lllllikes you," Happy rolled his tongue and Natsu surprised the cat by chuckling lightly and rolling his eyes.

"You've been listening in on Macao again haven't you." he said, and the feline nodded.

"Farther farther up and down, chase the nasty monster down. Monsters murder, monsters lie, therefore monsters need to die." both the males turned to look at the girl that out of nowhere started singing that verse in a childish melody the boy had heard before, the melody she had been muttering when she showed up at the shore, beaten to a pulp by what she called northerners. What kind of song was that? He also remembered the villagers that had called her those names. Vampire. Why would they believe her to be that?

***I stand by the last statement. I really DO write too much.***


	17. Chapter 17

***And here we are, at the beginning of another chapter. I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. There probably are good reasons behind that.***

"Where am I?" I muttered while looking about. I had fallen asleep on the couch, like usual, only accompanied by a nearly naked Natsu and Happy, the cat that loved fish more than anything and somehow had a very large amount stocked away. Somewhere. The part about Natsu being almost naked wasn't too usual. This wasn't their place, though. I wasn't even sure this was Magnolia. Further along, Natsu was sleeping in the bed next to me. We had one bed each, and the place looked neat, as if being cleaned way too often. A hotel room, perhaps? No one replied, since they were, well, sleeping, so I got up instead, moved over to his bed and poked the boy that might've kidnapped me.

"Natsu... Natsu! Where am I?" he groaned due to my pointy finger that I kept stabbing into his arm, opened his eyes. After a few seconds of mindless staring he grinned, sat up.

"You're awake!"

"Yeah. I am. Now, where am I?" how many times did I need to repeat that line before I got my answer?

"Hargeon. You wouldn't know..."

"What, you mean the place where supposedly some Salamander was spotted? What are we doing here?"

"Wait, you KNOW this place?" he seemed VERY surprised over to the fact that I knew the name of the town. Somewhat understandable, but I HAD been lost a few times. Even though I had little knowledge as to how to get to place, I did catch up on a few names every now and then. Just a few, though. It was a lucky coincidence really that led me to remember this name in particular. That, and quite a few things had happened during my stay her, albeit the shortness of it.

"I hit a lot of small towns on my way to Fairy Tail, you know, before I thought of taking the train. I mean, I kind of wanted to avoid trains since Father owns too many of them. Not like I wanted him to find out I was returning to Fiore, I didn't believe him to be all forgiving after everything..." that was an embarrassing tale in itself.

"Anyways, I got to this town, I was starving and then got a whiff of someone claiming that this Salamander was in town. At first I though, hey, a dragon looks like a salamander. But why would a dragon meet up in a town, right? Then there was word about it being a Fairy Tail mage." I had of course sought the guy out right away, since Fairy Tail rang a bell. A creep of a guy that had quite an amount of girls.. I think swooning was the right word.. over him. He smelled funny too, but not funny in a good way.

"But that was a lie too. He promised me food, so I went with him, but then he tried making me go on this boat." and boats didn't really agree with me. It was the whole ordeal with me not being able to swim. And when I didn't even know the strange guy that seemed obviously surprised over the fact that I wasn't following him around like some puppydog, I saw no point in tempting fate any more than neccessary. I mean, did Magnolia even HAVE a dock? If I had to swim to shore I was pretty much screwed. So I'd thanked the guy but declined. That would be when things turned ugly.

"I was here too, actually... I was on that boat." he turned green as he recalled the incident. Transportation. Probably his sole nemesis. So he'd been on the boat, huh. I hadn't. Sure, there was food there, but still, I declined.

"Oh... sorry about the.. wave, then. Aquarius was kind of pissy after the guy tried drowning me." he'd tried to drug me, the guy. Then he'd tried to drown me. Since Aquarius was on a date at the time it had ended up with some random fisherman that had rescued my sorry ass and brought me to a hotel by the dock. Strange how there always was a fisherman nearby to rescue me. Then again, there were quite an amount of fishermen in existence. Aquarius got the news later and somehow managed to summon herself and make a wave that caused the ship the man had tried to make me board to crash back onto the shore.

"Aquarius? YOU made that wave?" and Natsu probably didn't know what Aquarius was capable of. After all, he'd never really met her. He might not even know who she was, now when I thought about it.

"Aquarius did. She usually does what she wants. She didn't tell me much except the fact that the false Salamander got what he deserved. I only woke up in a burning building and had to make a run for it, eventually ending up at some train station. When I found out I could take the train to Magnolia I hopped on. That's when I met you." I corrected him, and continued my tale. Yes, Hargeon had been eventful.

"That might've been me, starting that fire..." he admitted. I guess that made sense, though I couldn't see why he started it. Strange. Natsu did start a lot of fires though. Like the one at Evarloo.

"Oh. Thought someone might want to burn me to death, not knowing that it wouldn't work. Might be Father, he never knew about Igneel.. but all that aside, what are we doing here?" and back to where we started. What WERE we doing here?

"Mission." he stated simply. Mission, huh? Made sense.

"What kind?" I asked, suspicious as to why the boy had chosen to apparently carry me all the way here while I remained asleep. It meant trouble when he did that. But even without trouble, we usually ended up in a tight spot anyways. I might've not accompanied the guy on TOO many missions, but his knack for trouble was astounding. It rivaled even my own ability to attract it.

"An S-rank mission!" he declared with the brightest smile ever. Okay. An S-rank mission. What was an S-rank mission? Didn't know. Something fancy, I figured.

"What does it involve?" I asked. I saw no point in asking too many questions. His smile told me the mission meant a lot to him, so.. why not, right?

"A curse. It's to lift a curse on an island called Galuna." he said. A curse. That could become interesting, and fast. Depended of the nature of the curse, of course. Some curses weren't all that bad. Who was I kidding, ALL curses were bad. Some of them weren't outright gruesome would be a more accurate description.

"You any good with curses?" I asked. When dealing with curses, people usually brought at least one person with them that had some knowledge regarding them. That flute at Clover Town had supposedly been cursed.

"I say we fight whatever caused the curse and then see what happens. It's an S-rank mission! If we succeed we can become S-rank mages!" and he told me with his entire being that no. No, he wasn't really that familiar with curses. I wasn't even sure he knew the meaning of the word. It only spelled out as bad to him, and in his little world bad could be beaten up until it turned good. That would be the general motto of the whole of Fairy Tail. Yeah...

"Aye!" the cat had woken up, agreed with his friend. Sounded like an idea. Head on. Not any plan B should we fail. I thought about it for a full thirty seconds.

"Fair enough. Why do I have a feeling that Erza will skin us alive if she catches us?" I decided to go on this quest with him. Was I any good with curses? Not really, no, but I had encountered a few every once in a while. But then there was Erza. THe nature of our arrival at Hargeon reeked of not being exactly legit.

"Because she will." he replied, and confirmed my thoughts. Well. Okay. If the curse didn't off us, she would see to that.

"Double threat then. There's no time to waste." and with that we got up, left the hotel room and headed for the docks.

* * *

"I've been here before..." I muttered as we entered the village, looked about and searching for any familiar faces. I was better with faces than with names. The doors were wide open, practically invited the four of us in. Yes, Gray had found us. We'd kidnapped him too. Of course he was awake now, but not too happy with the recent development.

"Lucy-nee!" came the yell before I got assaulted by two purple, winged creatures that efficiently knocked me to the ground. Aha... I knew I knew this place from somewhere. The butchers wife back in the village once told me to go back to Galuna to the other demons. Mama hit her through three consecutive buildings for saying it. The woman survived. It was an old tale in my village. Galuna, the nest of lessor demons. THIS was the cursed island? What would curse demons?

"What are you doing back here, little Northern girl?" a voice asked, belonging to one of the people I knew as elders. Well, he was technically THE elder, or the chief in the village. For the life of me I couldn't recall his name. To answer his question I held my hand up, showed off my Faist Tail mark while I remained on the ground, still buried under the two demons that now also were accompanied by others. I hoped he could see my hand. Natsu showed off his mark too, and Gray lifted up his t-shirt, knowingly this time, to show his affiliaton with the guild.

"There was a curse?" I uttered, a bit muffled under all the bodies.

"Curse? Ah, the curse... There is none." the old man laughed, dragged his clawed fingers through his beard while the the two boys stared at the man in disbelief. In the meantime I managed to sit up, and noticed quite a few new faces amongst the people hugging me. Young ones. Children that were too young to ever have met me. They still smiled brightly at me as if I was an old accomplice or theirs.

"Why did you send a request then?" I asked while Natsu was off in a corner sulking, Gray with him, seemingly grey clouds gathering above them.

"Ah, it was a misunderstanding, little Northern girl. It was all cleared up a little while ago, after that incident where the ground shook terribly. The fellow that explained it all to us should be around here somewhere... Hm. Oh, there he is!" I looked at the point his finger showed me, and there he was, in another corner, the stranger, sulking while drawing patterns in the ground, much like the fellows I had arrived with. He looked outright depressed, with his white hair and pale skin, only.. only clad in his underpants. It couldn't be... Could it? The boy was muttering something under his breath, unaware of the new arrivals. Actually, when I looked closer, there were others with him. Two more boys, and a girl next to.. a giant mouse? They were a while away, in a far corner.

"Say... that boy over there, what's his name?" I asked the Chief, and he shrugged.

"Don't remember." he said, didn't seem overly interested in recalling it either. Then he went on about how he should throw a party to celebrate the destruction of the moon and the return of the mermaid, and others started talking about it with him. I had NO idea what he was going on about, but locked my gaze on the white haired boy that now unconsciously started tugging on his last remaining piece of clothing. Now that behavior definitely rang some bells.

"Yo! ICE BOY!" I yelled, and two heads raised from their little mushroom farm on the ground. One would be named Gray Fullbuster, but at the moment he didn't interest me nearly as much as the boy with the white hair. Now THAT, had to be fate.

"Give me a moment, guys..." I managed to untangle myself from the demons that surrounded me, made a run for it towards the boy I had never thought I'd find. Firstly, he had gone off the gridf for a long time. No one had seen or heard from him. Yet here he was. Well. Hopefully it was him, or this might become awkward. I jumped him swiftly just as he stood, unsure what he was readying himself for, and the impact made us both fall to the ground.

"Lyon Vastia." a miracle I knew his name. A sheer miracle.

"Who're you?" came the reply, sort of strangled since he probably got the air knocked out of him upon impact with the ground. I got up, grabbed his arm and yanked him up before I decided to reply.

"I'm Lucy. I knew Ur." I said, smiling widely at him. The mention of her name made him turn back to a depressed, muttering fool that squatted on the ground and drew circles in the dirt.

"Your brother's here, y'know. Gray's here." I said, cocked my head to the side as I watched the dark thing in front of me. The change was instant. He got up, had a determent glare replacing the depressed grimace.

"Where?" he demanded to know, and I turned my head, brought a hand up to my mouth in order to increas the sound.

"Yo! Gray Fullbuster! Your brother Lyon wants to see you!" I yelled, and one of the dark figures from the other corner of depression got up, fully dressed one second, topless the other.

"Lyon!" came the surprised yell.

* * *

"How was I supposed to know they didn't get along?" I asked the village chief as we sat in the middle of the village, surrounded by walls on all sides, enjoying the feast they had prepared for the celebration after the destruction of the moon. I could clearly see the moon up above us, so the notion didn't really make sense to me, but according to the girl with the mouse it had involved some kind of giant glass magnifier. I chose to accept her explanation, though I understood even less after she told me this. The surrounding village was ruined. Due to the glass magnifier deal? No. Apparently Lyon and Gray hadn't seen each other in a while, and they hadn't separated as friends. A fight ensued. A large fight. The demons in the village were as forgiving as ever though, and still prepared a banquet which we all now attended, friend and foe alike. It was like feasting in the middle of a glacier, ice surrounding us on all sides despite the summer breeze that blew warm and summery.

"Lucy-nee, come and play!" a little child took hold of my hand and dragged me off. Skipping ropes. Skipping ropes while singing a song with a very familiar melody.

"Farther farther up and down, they are chasing monsters down.

Murder monsters, makes us lie, tells us monsters need to die." well that sounded familiar, yet different. From the perspective of a monster, I suspected. They were demons.

"Up the mountain road we live, on the forest floor we sleep.

If you come upon us once, we will throw a giant feast." That was definitely different, but seemingly fitted. Throw a feast, huh.

"They have pitchforks, they have guns, they have fire, makes us run.

Farther farther all around, they are hunting monsters down.

Murder monsters, makes us lie, tells us monsters need to die." they spotted me where they stood, waved me in, and soon I ended up on rope duty. Hold the rope. Make it swing. People would jump over the rope, over and over again, singing the song of monsters until they failed to jump over the rope. What a funny game hey were playing. And odd.

"WHAT is going on here?!" came a firm voice, sounding throughout the area, making people stop eating as all eyes turned to look at a positively furious woman clad in metal. Erza Scarlet had caught up with s at last, as Gray initially had warned us about before we knocked him unconscious and dragged him with us on the mission instead. We might die now.

"Ah.. eh, Erza. This.. this isn't what it looks like?" Natsu tried, visibly sweating as he had arrived at the same conclusion as me. And what DID this look like? And why phrase it as a question?

"Is that a friend of yours, Lucy-nee?" asked one of the children that had been skipping rope. I think that was what they called it. I had of course stopped moving that by now, so the girl, her skin spotty and dark blue, was tugging my shirt. I was about to correct her, tell the little one that I had no friends, when I once again remembered the declaration.

"She is. That is Erza Scarlet, one of the strongest mages I have ever met!" I answered instead, and the wom,an with the scarlet hair turned to me. Had she heard, me, by any chance?

"You know these.. people, Lucy?" I noticed the slight pause at people, but ignored it as I nodded.

"I've been here before. A long time ago." I replied, and she furrowed her brows.

"Didn't you say you had never set foot in Fiore before you left your village?" she asked, and I nodded.

"True. Didn't know this place belonged to any country at the time. How did I get here again... Was it the barrel incident?" I mused to myself, and an older girl shook her head.

"Nope."

"The stranded ship?" I tried again.

"No."

"That time I got eaten by a whale?" third times a charm? Wasn't that a saying.

"Wrong again, Lucy-nee. You get lost a lot, don't you." the little girl laughed. If none of those were correct then what was?

"Not THAT often. But if it wasn't one of THOSE incidents... Couldn't have been the wyverns, they usually stay in the mountains. Or the Vulcans, they're not too fond of the coast. None of the river incidents. Hm.. AH, I remember! It was the giant seagull! I got taken by a giant seagull and dropped in the ocean around here somewhere and got caught in one of your fishing nets!" I declared happily, and some of the village women laughed at me. I didn't understand why, but if they were having a good time, then I wasn't one to complain. A large BINGO came from the girl that had been correcting me earlier.

"Hence why we called her a mermaid the first time we met her. Her mother personally traveled all the way out her in order to bring her back home, the poor thing. She went on quite a few adventures during her stay though, got lost more times than we can even count. Lost Lucy, the little Mermaid, or the little Northern girl. That's the nicknames she got around here," an older woman explained. I'd forgotten about that.

"How often have you gotten lost at sea?" Gray asked in surprise, and I shrugged.

"The old man by the river that passed by my village didn't always catch me in time. Mama knows a lot of people though, so it usually ended well. She knows these people too." I replied, and the village chief nodded.

"How is your mother these days?" the Chief asked.

"She's out hunting," I replied nonchalantly, and for a moment all the demons stopped in their movements before everything went back to normal.

"Ah, I see. So you got lost and ended up with these fellows, did you? They seem like nice folks, but if you ever end up in any trouble then know that your friends on Galuna always will welcome you." he said, smiled fondly at me, much like the man that used to stay by the river. He was a nice man, err, demon.

"No, I actually went looking for Fairy Tail. I'm planning to stay for a while too." I corrected him, and he nodded, held up a key. A golden key. Zodiac.

"That's good to hear, little Lost Lucy. Greet that mother of yours the next time you see her, eh? I will do the same for you, and tell her where you are if she doesn't already know. The gods know that woman needs the help she can get when looking for her little Lost girl."

"Mhm." I agreed, and the feast continued as I received the key, the intended reward for the mission that didn't really exist. Somehow we managed to make Erza forget her mission of vengeance for a while, until Natsu eventually managed to convince her that we hadn't technically done anything wrong, only visited some old friends. Our death sentences were if nothing else temporarily held back.

* * *

"Ah, my dear Princess, your prince Charming has arrived!" a voice called out, and to my surprise Loke made an appearance at some point during the late stages of the feast we soon would be leaving since the pirates Erza had hijacked on her way here and that had their ship docked right next to the island, and that also had ended up here, had business to attend to in not too long. His appearance was brief, confusing and perhaps a bit annoying since I at the time had been on my way to the bathroom. He left me with some tickets before he disappeared, and I was standing there, none the wiser, with some pieces of paper that apparently would earn me and some friends a free weekend at some kind of fancy resort. Whatever that was. I would have to ask Erza. She knew this kind of stuff.

***Some said Tower of Heaven. I say Galuna. But I think we all can see where this is heading next at this point. Or do we? We'll have to find out, don't we?***


End file.
